A highly romantic marriage in Palestine has had the happy sequel here of saving an “illegal” woman immigrant from prison and deportation. She was wedded by her fiance almost on the very threshold of prison.
One of a party of thirty-seven Jewish men and women who had been detained while trying to enter the country without authority, and for whom bail had been refused in spite of the enormous amounts of money offered, this young woman was being taken from the courthouse to prison.
While police were hurrying along the dejected Jews, a young man named Yerucham Shermeister came along unobtrusively and walked alongside the young woman. Suddenly he took her hand and, in a ringing voice, cried, “Will you wed me?” She answered, “Yes.” Then, in the presence of them all, he pronounced loudly the Jewish ritual vow, “Then thou art consecrated to me by the Law of Moshe and Israel!” and slipped a ring onto her finger.
As a Palestinian citizen, he went to the prison superintendent and demanded the release of his wife, now a Palestinian national. The superintendent asked for written proof, and the man went to the Rabbinate and secured the necessary papers. The marriage had been legally performed.
Armed with the papers, he returned to prison and obtained his wife’s release. The happy young couple went arm in arm to their new life in Eretz-Israel.
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