Report of Committee on Desertion

Publication Date: January 1907

Publisher: Kohn & Pollock Inc.

Author(s): Lee K. Frankel

Research Area: Law and ethics; Social conditions

Keywords: Marriage; Religion; Family; Law

Type: Other

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This report addresses recent Jewish community action taken to address the rampant and growing problem of men deserting their wives and children, including in the report recent case histories and statistics. That action included pressing for the adoption of a new bill in New York that made child abandonment a felony, as well as for more uniformity among state laws as regards desertion.

Additionally, the community used publicity campaigns, distributing information about deserting husbands to Jewish press nationwide, with the promise that a husband who willingly returns to support his family would not be punished but that one who did not would be found, at the expense of the Jewish community, and prosecuted. It found that this campaign had good effect and reccmmends its expansion.

It also found that desertion often came after a Russian man immigrating ahead of his wife and children for financial reasons, and then starting new family without regards to the old one. In this regard it recommended finding ways to support families immigrating together. A discussion and question and answer period is transcribed.

In Proceedings of the 4th National Conference of Jewish Charities, 1906, Kohn & Pollock Inc.