On April 30, N. Ried asked about marriage between first cousins


My maternal grandparents were first cousins; their mothers were
sisters. They were married in the US shortly after my grandfather
sent enough money for my grandmother to come. I wondered why they
didn't marry in Russia, but the probable explanation is that my
grandfather had to leave Russia in a hurry to avoid serving in the
Russo-Japanese war.
I asked a rabbi whether first cousin marriage was ok under Jewish law.
She said it is ok. Then recently I read a biography of Zeev Jabotinsky.
It said his parents could not marry in Russia because it was illegal
in Czarist Russia. If cousins in Odessa did marry perhaps the rabbi
had no problems with it, and the civil authorities were not informed.
Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, first cousin marriage is
illegal in some states in the US. My grandparents were married in
Philadelphia and first cousin marriage is illegal in Pennsylvania.
In Indiana where I grew up and my grandparents lived first cousin
marriages are void. Maybe the laws in the early 20th century were
different or probably when they arrived in the US around 1905
they never asked.

David Jacobs
Framingham, Massachusetts
Forman and Rader, Cherkassy and Kremenchug