A Jewish specialist in matrimonial law has asserted that there has been a tenfold increase in Jewish divorces during the past 10 years.
Louis Z. Grant also said, in an interview in the Sentinal, a Chicago Jewish Weekly, that “the lost generation of Jews, without a proper Jewish education “were “the greatest offenders” in the increase in divorces.
The attorney, who has had more than 30 years of experience in the field, is chairman of a reconciliation subcommittee of the matrimonial committee of the Chicago Bar Association, which is helping to set up the first local “reconciliation court,” to begin about August 1. The new agency will arrange for husbands and wives to meet with a counselor, to get spiritual help from a clergyman of their faith, and to meet with attorneys in efforts to effect reconciliations.
He said also that rabbis will be asked to urge couples coming to the reconciliation court to “return to the high moral values of Judaism.” He contended that attendance at synagogues only three days a year, and use of the synagogue for social, fund-raising and “fun-raising” parties, contributed to the departures from moral standards leading to the rising divorce rate.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.