Overview
The emancipation of the Jews of England was largely complete when George III came to the throne in 1760. Free to live how and where they wished, the Jews had been specifically exempted from the provisions of the 1753 Marriage Act which made Christian marriage the only legal option for all others. The effect of this exemption was to put the matrimonial causes of the Jews of England exclusively in the hands of their Rabbis and Dayanim (Jewish ecclesiastical judges) for the next one hundred years. No Bet Din (Jewish ecclesiastical court) anywhere in the world has left such a complete record of its transactions -- matrimonial and proselytical -- as that contained in the extant Pinkas (minute-book) of the London Bet Din from 1805 to 1855. In all other matters, including the offences punishable by transportation, Jews were subject to the jurisdiction of the civil courts. Of the estimated 150,000 convict transportees shipped to the Australian penal colonies, some seven hundred were Jews. Matrimonial and related matters involving twenty of these miscreants are recorded in the Pinkas. Jeremy Pfeffer recounts the history of the London Bet Din during these years as revealed by the Pinkas record and relates the previously untold stories of this group of Jewish convict transportees and their families.
Full Product Details
Author: Jeremy I. Pfeffer
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Imprint: Liverpool University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 22.90cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 15.20cm
Weight: 0.652kg
ISBN: 9781845192938
ISBN 10: 1845192931
Pages: 355
Publication Date: 01 September 2008
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Curiosity over a family portrait of a rabbi who served in London s Bet Din (ecclesiastical court), who travelled to Australia in 1830 to arrange a Get (religious divorce) for the British wife of a Jewish convict transported there, led Pfeffer to research the fate of these couples. Drawing on Bet Din records, he relates this little-known chapter of Jewish history in the contexts of Jewish law (on conversion as well as marriage), and the expulsion and return of Jews to England. Illustrations include marriage registers for Australia and Van Diemen s Land (Tasmania), and ritual art. This issue is still timely for women unable to remarry when a Get cannot be secured. Reference & Research Book News
<p> Curiosity over a family portrait of a rabbi who served in London's Bet Din (ecclesiastical court), who travelled to Australia in 1830 to arrange a Get (religious divorce) for the British wife of a Jewish convict transported there, led Pfeffer to research the fate of these couples. Drawing on Bet Din records, he relates this little-known chapter of Jewish history in the contexts of Jewish law (on conversion as well as marriage), and the expulsion and return of Jews to England. Illustrations include marriage registers for Australia and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), and ritual art. This issue is still timely for women unable to remarry when a Get cannot be secured. -- Reference & Research Book News
Author Information
Jeremy I. Pfeffer teaches physics at the Rehovot campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A graduate of Imperial College in London and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he has taught science in high schools in England and Israel., and has written and published textbooks on Modern Physics in both English and Hebrew.. The present book is the result of a private study that has stretched intermittently over the last twenty five years.
