Refusal to Be Married by Rabbi No Annulment Ground, Court Rules

“Marriage cannot be impaired, modified or annulled by private agreement, or on account of religious differences of the married parties.”

Supreme Court Referee William P. Burr, ruling, refused to grant annulment to Rudolph Raphael, of 103 Second Avenue, of his marriage to Mrs. Sadie Miller Raphael, 233 East Eighty-ninth Street. His grounds were she had agreed to have a ceremony performed by a Rabbi after a civil marriage and had later refused. Mrs. Raphael is a Catholic.

The Raphaels were married September 13, 1917.

In nediate separation followed refusal of his wife to be married by a rabbi, Raphael said. “She was afraid her people would disown her if she married in the Jewish faith,” he said.

Because the marriage was not consummated does not mean that the marriage, as a civil contract, did not become binding, Mr. Burr ruled. Her readiness to live with the plaintiff as his wife and to keep her obligations under the civil marriage, said Mr. Burr, showed that the marriage should not be annulled.

WARBURG CABLES $100,000 CONTRIBUTION FOR N. Y. Y. M. H. A. CAMPAIGN

Receipt of a contribution of $100,000 by cable from Flix M. Warburg toward the $1,500,000 Building Fund of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association was announced by Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, president of the association and chairman of the building fund campaign which begins on Sunday. The fund is to be used for the erection of an eleven story addition to the present Y. M. H. A. building which is located at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue.

Mr. Warburg, who was president of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association from 1908 to 1916 when he was succeeded by Judge Irving Lehman, is now travelling in the Far East and is not expected to return to New York City before the end of next month.

In his cable to Judge Proskauer. Mr. Warburg expressed his regret that he would be unable to take part in the building-fund campaign. “I am happy, however, to make this contribution toward the campaign, which should have been started ten years ago when it was already apparent that the building donated in 1900 was becoming entirely inadequate for the thousands of Jewish young men who wanted to make use of it. I hope the campaign will succeed because the work of the association and the boys whom it is endeavoring to help are very close to my heart. The “Y” has been a great factor in the development of a generation of fine upstanding young Jews, a credit to themselves and their people.”

Headquarters for the campaign, which is being directed by I. Edwin Goldwasser, have been opened at the Hotel Biltmore. Associated with Judge Proskauer on the general committee of the campaign are Frederick Brown. Col. Michael Friedsam, S. W. Straus, Col. Herbert E. Lehman. Judge Irving Lehman, Louis Marshall, Ludwig Vogelstein, Henry Ittleson, Henry I. Bernheim, Arthur Lehman, Max D. Steuer, Lester Hofheimer, Aaron E. Norman, Bernard K. Marcus, Hyman S. Crystal, Sidney O. Crystal and Aaron Rabinowitz. The treasurer is Samuel J. Bloomingdale.