Can JQuery be used instead of an SSI include?

Can JQuery be used instead of an SSI include?

I wish to have a common menu amongst my website and for various reasons would prefer not to use SSI. Nor do I want to convert all my pages to PHP just to use the include statement. Can JQuery produce the same effect/results using a simple function? I've messed around with the .load and $.get statements but with no results. Basically it would need to pull the external element (an html page with the menu code embedded) into the target div on page load. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance!