(Kethubah) Marriage Contract. Brown ink on Vellum. Hebrew text on left side, English translation on right. Uniting Judah B. Polock to Mary Hyams

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Charleston, South Carolina

5th Cheshvan, 5609 - (1st November, 1848)

Exhibited: Yeshiva University Museum, New York, The Jewish Wedding (1977); McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.

SIGNIFICANT VESTIGE OF 19th CENTURY AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE Prepared in the “Seventy Third Year of the Independence of the United States of America,” the contract contains two separate legal documents: a Hebrew Kethubah and a secular marriage contract in English. It is most unusual to find such a translation in the body of a Hebrew Kethubah. Each side of the contract is signed by the bridegroom and witnessed by J. R. Solomons, Lucas D’Lange and Jacob Rosenfeld, Minister of Congregation Shearith Israel of Charleston (the Orthodox Congregation, which broke away from Beth Elo-him). Payment of 200 silver zuzim is noted as well as a dowry of $6,000.00 with trustees to be Henry Hyams and Judah Bensadon, father and brother-in-law of the bride respectively. Henry Hyams, cousin of Judah P. Benjamin, was an active secessionist and rose to became Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana (1859-64).