An Ohio doctor's will gave his son seven years to marry a Jewish woman or lose his share to the State of Israel, and the court upheld it

Dr David Shapira died on 13 April 1973, a resident of Mahoning County, Ohio. Item VIII of his will divided the residue equally among his three children: Ruth Shapira Aharoni of Tel Aviv, Daniel Jacob Shapira and Mark Benjamin Simon Shapira. Daniel's share carried a condition. He would receive it only if, at his father's death, he was married to "a Jewish girl whose both parents were Jewish." If not, the executor would hold the share for up to seven years. If Daniel married such a woman within that time, he received it. If he did not, or married a non-Jewish woman, the share went "to The State of Israel, absolutely." Mark's share carried a similar condition. Daniel was 21, unmarried and a student at Youngstown State University. He sued the executor, Union National Bank, and the State of Israel appeared to defend its gift. Daniel argued the condition violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to marry and that the county had too few eligible Jewish women. On 22 January 1974 the Court of Common Pleas upheld the will. The judge held that the court was enforcing a limit on an inheritance, not on the right to marry. He called seven years "a most reasonable grace period" and found that the gift over to Israel showed the father's aim was to preserve "the Jewish faith and blood." The case is still taught in American wills courses. Whether Daniel married within seven years is not recorded in the sources found^†.