Certification that a husband and wife are both in fact single? This was a peculiarly Orthodox method of fighting British restrictions on immigration to Palestine

One might suppose that a local rabbinate’s archives, with their records of marriages, deaths, and divorce, are not the most sensational section of any community vaults. Yet they are often a rich source of genealogical material, especially in communities where the civil authorities outsourced such registration to the rabbinate. These archives can also shed much light on community life as well as halakhic precedent.

One such document is a certificate confirming that the holder is single. This form is required whenever one member of an engaged couple is from out of town and has to prove his or her marital status. When such a certificate attests to the single status of a couple, something fishy must be going on. A file containing a hundred such documents must be very fishy indeed. In fact, the story behind this file is both poignant and of national significance.

The file belonged to Abraham Leib Silberman, chief rabbi of Safed under the British Mandate. Silberman’s records include certificates issued by rabbis in eastern Europe during the 1930s, of which the following is typical:

3 Tevet 5699 [December 25, 1938]

Certification
I hereby certify that no wedding ceremony between Mr. ___ and ___ was performed under my auspices, that the records in their documents (on the travel permit) stating that they are married to one another are only for the well known reason and for official purposes, and that on the date recorded on their documents, August 17, 1937, I did nothing that would prevent their marrying anyone else in accordance with Jewish law….
In witness whereof, I affix my signature on the date noted above:
Haim Zalman Tzvi b. Rabbi Menahem Mendel Šerelis
Rabbi of the above locality