Interfaith marriage in Judaism
Encyclopedia
Interfaith marriage in Judaism
(also called mixed marriage or intermarriage) was historically looked upon with very strong disfavour by Jewish leaders, and it remains a controversial issue amongst Jewish leaders today. In the Talmud
, interfaith marriage is completely prohibited, although the definition of interfaith is not so simply expressed. In modern times, many Jews reject intermarriage out of fear of Jewish assimilation
.
Marriage
s between Jews
and non-Jews were extremely rare until the Jewish Enlightenment
and emancipation
, which swept through communities in the Jewish diaspora
during the 19th and 20th centuries. As Jews began to assimilate
into the broader societies in which they lived, intermarriages became more common. The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey
reported an intermarriage rate of 52 percent among American Jews.
Some interfaith couples conduct interfaith marriages as a civil arrangement to avoid religious marriage. A number of rabbi
s refuse to officiate at any interfaith marriage involving a Jew, even if it is merely a civil marriage ceremony. Thus in modern times, interfaith marriages are often performed by independent interfaith officiants
, or by civil officials.
is somewhat ambiguous; that is, except in relation to intermarriage with a Canaanite
, which the majority of the Israelite patriarchs
are depicted as criticising. This attitude is formalised in the Deuteronomic Code
, which forbids intermarriage with Canaanites, on the basis that it might lead to a son, resulting from the union, being brought up to follow the Canaanite religion. The principle is essentially a general one, and the deuteronomic explanation doesn't clarify why it singles out the Canaanites in particular; one of the Talmudic writers took it to forbid all intermarriage with non-Jewish nations. In Numbers 25, Phineas
is praised by God for having punished an Israelite prince who publicly cohabited with a Midianite woman (not from the seven Canaanite nations); this took place at a time when foreign (Moabite) women were inducing the Jews to perform idolatry.
In several places in the Jewish Bible, there are relations which appear to be intermarriages - for example, King David is described as marrying the daughter of the king of Geshur
, and Bathsheba as having married Uriah the Hittite
. Deuteronomy itself implies that intermarriage to Edom
ites or Egyptians
was acceptable, by permitting the grandchildren of such people to be treated as Israelites. Traditional commentators generally explain such verses as referring to situations where the Gentile partner had converted, and explicitly so in the latter case, where grandchildren are understood as being the grandchldren of converts. In places, traditional commentators suggest that the person involved is not a Gentile, but a Jew who has lived in a Gentile country, or that the law of the captive woman is involved.
In any case, after the Babylonian Captivity
disquiet seems to have arisen about such exogamy; the Book of Malachi
declares that the intermarriages that had occurred were a profanity, and several Jewish leaders eventually made a formal complaint to Ezra
about these marriages. Ezra
definitively extended the law against intermarriage to forbid marriage between a Jew and any non-Jew; he also excommunicated
those people who refused to divorce their foreign spouses.
Gradually, however, many countries removed these restrictions, and marriage between Jews and Christians (and Muslims
) began to occur. In 1236 Moses of Coucy induced the Jews bespoused by such marriages to dissolve them. In 1807, Napolean's Grand Sanhedrin declared that such marriages were valid and should not be treated as anathema. In 1844, the 1807 ruling was extended by the Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick
to include any adherent of a monotheistic religion; but they also altered it to forbid marriages involving those who lived in states that would prevent children of the marriage from being raised Jewish. This conference was highly controversial; one of its resolutions called on its members to abolish the Kol Nidre prayer, which opens the Yom Kippur service. One member of the Brunswick Conference later changed his opinion, becoming an opponent of intermarriage.
Traditional Judaism does not consider marriage between a Jew by birth and a convert as an intermarriage. Hence, all the Biblical passages that appear to support intermarriages, such as that of Joseph to Asenath
, and that of Ruth
to Boaz
, were regarded by the classical rabbis as having occurred only after the foreign spouse had converted to Judaism. Some opinions, however, still considered Canaanites forbidden to marry even after conversion; this did not necessarily apply to their children. The Shulchan Aruch
and its commentaries bring various opinions as to when intermarriage is a Torah prohibition and when the prohibition is rabbinic.
A foundling
- a person who was abandoned as a child without their parents being identified - was classified as a non-Jew, in relation to intermarriage, if they had been found in an area where at least one non-Jew lived (even if there were hundreds of Jews in the area, and just 1 non-Jew); this drastically contrasts with the treatment by other areas of Jewish religion, in which a foundling was classified as Jewish if the majority of the people were Jewish, in the area in which the foundling was found. If the mother was known, but not the father, the child was treated as a foundling, unless the mother claimed that the child was an Israelite (the claim would be given the benefit of the doubt).
and later classical sources of Jewish law are clear that the institution of Jewish marriage, kiddushin, can only be effected between Jews.
Some of the more liberal Jewish movements - Reform
, Reconstructionist
, and Liberal
(collectively referred to as Progressive
internationally) - do not generally regard the historic corpus and process of Jewish law as intrinsically binding. Progressive rabbinical associations have no firm prohibition against intermarriage; according to a survey of rabbis, conducted in 1985, more than 87% of Reconstructionist rabbis were willing to officiate at interfaith marriages, and in 2003 at least 50% of Reform rabbis were willing to perform interfaith marriages. Nevertheless, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform rabbinical association in North America and the largest Progressive rabbinical association, has consistently opposed intermarriage, including their members' officiating at them, through resolutions and responsa. Regardless of their attitude to intermarriage itself, most rabbis from these denominations do still try to persuade intermarried couples to raise their children as Jews.
All branches of Orthodox Judaism
follow the historic Jewish attitudes to intermarriage, and therefore refuse to accept that intermarriages would have any validity or legitimacy, and strictly forbid sexual intercourse with a member of a different faith. Orthodox rabbis refuse to officiate at interfaith weddings, and also try to avoid assisting them in other ways. Secular intermarriage is seen as a deliberate rejection of Judaism, and an intermarried person is effectively cut off from most of the Orthodox community, although some Chabad-Lubavitch
and Modern Orthodox Jews do reach out to intermarried Jewish couples.
The Conservative Movement in Judaism
does not sanction or recognize the Jewish legal validity of intermarriage, but encourages acceptance of the non-Jewish spouse within the family, hoping that such acceptance will lead to the spouse's conversion to Judaism
. The Rabbinical Assembly
Standards of Rabbinic Practice prohibit Conservative rabbis from officiating at intermarriages. The Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism
recently published the following statement on intermarriage:
Occasionally, a Jew marries a non-Jew who believes in God as understood by Judaism, and who rejects non-Jewish theologies; Jews sometimes call such people ethical monotheists. Steven Greenberg
, an Orthodox Rabbi, has made the controversial proposal that, in these cases, the non-Jewish partner be considered a resident alien
- the biblical description of someone who is not Jewish, but who lives within the Jewish community; according to Jewish tradition, such resident aliens share many of the same responsibilities and privileges as the Jewish community in which they reside.
intermarried.
In more recent times, rates of intermarriage have increased generally; for example, the US National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01
reports that, in the United States of America between 1996 and 2001, nearly half (47%) of Jews who had married during that time period had married non-Jewish partners. The possibility that this might lead to the gradual dying out of Judaism, much like the historic fate of Arianism
, is regarded by most Jewish leaders, regardless of denomination, as precipitating a crisis. For this reason, as early as the mid 19th century, some senior Jewish leaders denounced intermarriage as a danger to the continued existence of Judaism.
In the United States of America, other causes, such as more people marrying later in life, have combined with intermarriage to cause the Jewish community to decrease dramatically; for every 20 adult Jews, there are now only 17 Jewish children. Some religious conservatives now even speak metaphorically of intermarriage as a silent holocaust
. On the other hand, more tolerant and liberal Jews embrace interfaith marriage as an enriching contribution to a multicultural society. Regardless of attitudes to intermarriage, there is now an increasing effort to reach out to descendants of intermarried parents, each Jewish denomination focusing on those it defines as Jewish; secular and non-denominational Jewish organisations have sprung up to bring the descendants of intermarried parents back into the Jewish fold
denominations have publicly declared that they will no longer proselytize
Jews. They have made use of dual-covenant theology
.
has also announced an initiative to prevent interracial relationships, providing a telephone hotline for friends and family to "inform" on Jewish girls who date Arab men as well as psychologists to provide counselling. The town of Kiryat Gat launched a school programme in schools to warn Jewish girls against dating local Bedouin men.
In February 2010 Maariv
has reported that the Tel Aviv
municipality had instituted an official, government-sponsored counseling program to discourage Jewish girls from dating and marrying Arab boys. According to supporters of the program, the girls are often ostacized for being Jewish, and (some) fall into drugs and alcohol or are prevented from leaving their Arab boyfriends.
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
(also called mixed marriage or intermarriage) was historically looked upon with very strong disfavour by Jewish leaders, and it remains a controversial issue amongst Jewish leaders today. In the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
, interfaith marriage is completely prohibited, although the definition of interfaith is not so simply expressed. In modern times, many Jews reject intermarriage out of fear of Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
.
Marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
s between Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and non-Jews were extremely rare until the Jewish Enlightenment
Haskalah
Haskalah , the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews in the 18th–19th centuries that advocated adopting enlightenment values, pressing for better integration into European society, and increasing education in secular studies, Hebrew language, and Jewish history...
and emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...
, which swept through communities in the Jewish diaspora
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
during the 19th and 20th centuries. As Jews began to assimilate
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
into the broader societies in which they lived, intermarriages became more common. The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey
National Jewish Population Survey
The National Jewish Population Survey , most recently performed in 2000-01, is a representative survey of the Jewish population in the United States sponsored by United Jewish Communities and the Jewish Federation system....
reported an intermarriage rate of 52 percent among American Jews.
Some interfaith couples conduct interfaith marriages as a civil arrangement to avoid religious marriage. A number of rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s refuse to officiate at any interfaith marriage involving a Jew, even if it is merely a civil marriage ceremony. Thus in modern times, interfaith marriages are often performed by independent interfaith officiants
Interfaith officiants
Interfaith Officiants perform private weddings, commitment ceremonies, funerals, baby namings/welcomings, memorial services, vow renewals, handfastings, adoption ceremonies, family unions, ship christenings, home blessings, and other life-cycle events...
, or by civil officials.
In the Bible
The Biblical position on exogamous marriageExogamy
Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects:...
is somewhat ambiguous; that is, except in relation to intermarriage with a Canaanite
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
, which the majority of the Israelite patriarchs
Patriarchs (Bible)
The Patriarchs of the Bible, when narrowly defined, are Abraham, the ancestor of all the Abrahamic nations; his son Isaac, the ancestor of the nations surrounding Israel/Judah; and Isaac's son Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the Israelites...
are depicted as criticising. This attitude is formalised in the Deuteronomic Code
Deuteronomic Code
The Deuteronomic Code is the name given by academics to the law code within the Book of Deuteronomy. It contains "a variety of topics including religious ceremonies and ritual purity, civil and criminal law, and the conduct of war"...
, which forbids intermarriage with Canaanites, on the basis that it might lead to a son, resulting from the union, being brought up to follow the Canaanite religion. The principle is essentially a general one, and the deuteronomic explanation doesn't clarify why it singles out the Canaanites in particular; one of the Talmudic writers took it to forbid all intermarriage with non-Jewish nations. In Numbers 25, Phineas
Phinehas
-Biblical figures:*Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the High Priest*Phinehas, son of the High Priest Eli. He was a priest at Shiloh, and died when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant-Other :*Pinchas, the 41st weekly Torah portion....
is praised by God for having punished an Israelite prince who publicly cohabited with a Midianite woman (not from the seven Canaanite nations); this took place at a time when foreign (Moabite) women were inducing the Jews to perform idolatry.
In several places in the Jewish Bible, there are relations which appear to be intermarriages - for example, King David is described as marrying the daughter of the king of Geshur
Geshur
Geshur was a territory in the northern part of Bashan, in ancient Levant, adjoining the province of Argob and the kingdom of Aram or Syria. It was allotted to the half-tribe of Manasseh, which settled east of the Jordan river; but its inhabitants, the Geshurites, could not be expelled...
, and Bathsheba as having married Uriah the Hittite
Uriah the Hittite
Uriah the Hittite was a soldier in King David’s army mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He was the husband of Bathsheba, and was murdered by order of David by having the soldiers retreat from him in battle. Uriah's wife was pregnant by King David through an adulterous affair...
. Deuteronomy itself implies that intermarriage to Edom
Edom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
ites or Egyptians
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
was acceptable, by permitting the grandchildren of such people to be treated as Israelites. Traditional commentators generally explain such verses as referring to situations where the Gentile partner had converted, and explicitly so in the latter case, where grandchildren are understood as being the grandchldren of converts. In places, traditional commentators suggest that the person involved is not a Gentile, but a Jew who has lived in a Gentile country, or that the law of the captive woman is involved.
In any case, after the Babylonian Captivity
Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity was the period in Jewish history during which the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon—conventionally 587–538 BCE....
disquiet seems to have arisen about such exogamy; the Book of Malachi
Book of Malachi
Malachi is a book of the Hebrew Bible, the last of the twelve minor prophets and the final book of the Neviim...
declares that the intermarriages that had occurred were a profanity, and several Jewish leaders eventually made a formal complaint to Ezra
Ezra
Ezra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...
about these marriages. Ezra
Ezra
Ezra , also called Ezra the Scribe and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra. According to the Hebrew Bible he returned from the Babylonian exile and reintroduced the Torah in Jerusalem...
definitively extended the law against intermarriage to forbid marriage between a Jew and any non-Jew; he also excommunicated
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
those people who refused to divorce their foreign spouses.
Later laws and rulings
Although most of the rabbis in the Talmud considered the Deuteronomic law to refer only to marriage to Canaanites, they considered all religious intermarriage to be prohibited at least rabbinically. Christian rulers regarded unions between Jews and Christians unfavourably, and repeatedly prohibited them under penalty of death.Gradually, however, many countries removed these restrictions, and marriage between Jews and Christians (and Muslims
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
) began to occur. In 1236 Moses of Coucy induced the Jews bespoused by such marriages to dissolve them. In 1807, Napolean's Grand Sanhedrin declared that such marriages were valid and should not be treated as anathema. In 1844, the 1807 ruling was extended by the Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick
Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick
The Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick was a conference held in 1844 in Brunswick, convoked by Levi Herzfeld and Ludwig Philippson. Other attendees included Solomon Formstecher, Samuel Hirsch, Mendel Hess, Samuel Holdheim...
to include any adherent of a monotheistic religion; but they also altered it to forbid marriages involving those who lived in states that would prevent children of the marriage from being raised Jewish. This conference was highly controversial; one of its resolutions called on its members to abolish the Kol Nidre prayer, which opens the Yom Kippur service. One member of the Brunswick Conference later changed his opinion, becoming an opponent of intermarriage.
Traditional Judaism does not consider marriage between a Jew by birth and a convert as an intermarriage. Hence, all the Biblical passages that appear to support intermarriages, such as that of Joseph to Asenath
Asenath
Asenath or Asenith is a figure in the Book of Genesis , an Egyptian woman whom Pharaoh gave to Joseph son of Jacob to be his wife...
, and that of Ruth
Ruth (biblical figure)
Ruth , is the main character in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible.-Biblical narrative:Ruth was a Moabitess, who married Mahlon, the son of Elimelech and Naomi, but Elimelech and his two sons died...
to Boaz
Boaz
Boaz is a major figure in The Book of Ruth in the Bible. The term is found 24 times in the Scriptures, being two in Greek ....
, were regarded by the classical rabbis as having occurred only after the foreign spouse had converted to Judaism. Some opinions, however, still considered Canaanites forbidden to marry even after conversion; this did not necessarily apply to their children. The Shulchan Aruch
Shulchan Aruch
The Shulchan Aruch also known as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most authoritative legal code of Judaism. It was authored in Safed, Israel, by Yosef Karo in 1563 and published in Venice two years later...
and its commentaries bring various opinions as to when intermarriage is a Torah prohibition and when the prohibition is rabbinic.
A foundling
Child abandonment
Child abandonment is the practice of relinquishing interests and claims over one's offspring with the intent of never again resuming or reasserting them. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness. An abandoned child is called a foundling .-Causes:Poverty is often a...
- a person who was abandoned as a child without their parents being identified - was classified as a non-Jew, in relation to intermarriage, if they had been found in an area where at least one non-Jew lived (even if there were hundreds of Jews in the area, and just 1 non-Jew); this drastically contrasts with the treatment by other areas of Jewish religion, in which a foundling was classified as Jewish if the majority of the people were Jewish, in the area in which the foundling was found. If the mother was known, but not the father, the child was treated as a foundling, unless the mother claimed that the child was an Israelite (the claim would be given the benefit of the doubt).
Modern Attitudes
The TalmudTalmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
and later classical sources of Jewish law are clear that the institution of Jewish marriage, kiddushin, can only be effected between Jews.
Some of the more liberal Jewish movements - Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
, Reconstructionist
Reconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
, and Liberal
Liberal Judaism
Liberal Judaism , is one of the two forms of Progressive Judaism found in the United Kingdom, the other being Reform Judaism. Liberal Judaism, which developed at the beginning of the twentieth century is less conservative than UK Reform Judaism...
(collectively referred to as Progressive
Progressive Judaism
Progressive Judaism , is an umbrella term used by strands of Judaism which affiliate to the World Union for Progressive Judaism. They embrace pluralism, modernity, equality and social justice as core values and believe that such values are consistent with a committed Jewish life...
internationally) - do not generally regard the historic corpus and process of Jewish law as intrinsically binding. Progressive rabbinical associations have no firm prohibition against intermarriage; according to a survey of rabbis, conducted in 1985, more than 87% of Reconstructionist rabbis were willing to officiate at interfaith marriages, and in 2003 at least 50% of Reform rabbis were willing to perform interfaith marriages. Nevertheless, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform rabbinical association in North America and the largest Progressive rabbinical association, has consistently opposed intermarriage, including their members' officiating at them, through resolutions and responsa. Regardless of their attitude to intermarriage itself, most rabbis from these denominations do still try to persuade intermarried couples to raise their children as Jews.
All branches of Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
follow the historic Jewish attitudes to intermarriage, and therefore refuse to accept that intermarriages would have any validity or legitimacy, and strictly forbid sexual intercourse with a member of a different faith. Orthodox rabbis refuse to officiate at interfaith weddings, and also try to avoid assisting them in other ways. Secular intermarriage is seen as a deliberate rejection of Judaism, and an intermarried person is effectively cut off from most of the Orthodox community, although some Chabad-Lubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch
Chabad-Lubavitch is a Chasidic movement in Orthodox Judaism. One of the world's larger and best-known Chasidic movements, its official headquarters is in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York...
and Modern Orthodox Jews do reach out to intermarried Jewish couples.
The Conservative Movement in Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
does not sanction or recognize the Jewish legal validity of intermarriage, but encourages acceptance of the non-Jewish spouse within the family, hoping that such acceptance will lead to the spouse's conversion to Judaism
Conversion to Judaism
Conversion to Judaism is a formal act undertaken by a non-Jewish person who wishes to be recognised as a full member of the Jewish community. A Jewish conversion is both a religious act and an expression of association with the Jewish people...
. The Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbinical Assembly
The Rabbinical Assembly is the international association of Conservative rabbis. The RA was founded in 1901 to shape the ideology, programs, and practices of the Conservative movement. It publishes prayerbooks and books of Jewish interest, and oversees the work of the Committee on Jewish Law and...
Standards of Rabbinic Practice prohibit Conservative rabbis from officiating at intermarriages. The Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism
Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism
The Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism, also known as the LCCJ, is a council made up of members of the various arms of the Conservative movement, a formal movement within the Jewish denomination of Conservative Judaism....
recently published the following statement on intermarriage:
- In the past, intermarriage... was viewed as an act of rebellion, a rejection of Judaism. Jews who intermarried were essentially excommunicatedCheremCherem , is the highest ecclesiastical censure in the Jewish community. It is the total exclusion of a person from the Jewish community. It is a form of shunning, and is similar to excommunication in the Catholic Church...
. But now, intermarriage is often the result of living in an open society... If our children end up marrying non-JewsGoyis a Hebrew biblical term for "nation". By Roman times it had also acquired the meaning of "non-Jew". The latter is also its meaning in Yiddish.-In Biblical Hebrew:...
, we should not reject them. We should continue to give our love and by that retain a measure of influence in their lives, Jewishly and otherwise. Life consists of constant growth and our adult children may yet reach a stage when Judaism has new meaning for them. However, the marriage between a Jew and non-Jew is not a celebration for the Jewish community.....
The exact definition of 'interfaith' marriage
Different movements in Judaism have different views on who is a Jew, and thus on what constitutes an interfaith marriage. Unlike Reform Judaism, the Orthodox and Conservative streams do not accept as Jewish a person whose mother is not Jewish, nor a convert whose conversion was not performed according to classical Jewish law.Occasionally, a Jew marries a non-Jew who believes in God as understood by Judaism, and who rejects non-Jewish theologies; Jews sometimes call such people ethical monotheists. Steven Greenberg
Steven Greenberg (rabbi)
Steven Greenberg is an American rabbi. He is generally described as the first openly gay Orthodox Jewish rabbi. His being an Orthodox rabbi is disputed by some Orthodox Jews since he publicly disclosed he was gay in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv in 1999 and participated in the 2001...
, an Orthodox Rabbi, has made the controversial proposal that, in these cases, the non-Jewish partner be considered a resident alien
Ger toshav
Ger toshav , is a term used in Judaism to refer to a gentile who is a "resident alien", that is, one who lives in a Jewish state and has certain protections under Jewish law, and is considered a righteous gentile .-Definition:...
- the biblical description of someone who is not Jewish, but who lives within the Jewish community; according to Jewish tradition, such resident aliens share many of the same responsibilities and privileges as the Jewish community in which they reside.
Impact and consequences
In the early 19th century, in some less modernised regions of the world, exogamy was extremely rare - less than a tenth of a percent (0.1%) of the Jews of Algeria, for example, practiced exogamy. But in the early 20th century, even in most Germanic regions of central Europe there were still only a mere 5% of Jews marrying non-Jews. However, the picture was quite different in other locations; the figure was 18% for Berlin, and during the same period, nearly half of all Jews in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
intermarried.
In more recent times, rates of intermarriage have increased generally; for example, the US National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01
National Jewish Population Survey
The National Jewish Population Survey , most recently performed in 2000-01, is a representative survey of the Jewish population in the United States sponsored by United Jewish Communities and the Jewish Federation system....
reports that, in the United States of America between 1996 and 2001, nearly half (47%) of Jews who had married during that time period had married non-Jewish partners. The possibility that this might lead to the gradual dying out of Judaism, much like the historic fate of Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
, is regarded by most Jewish leaders, regardless of denomination, as precipitating a crisis. For this reason, as early as the mid 19th century, some senior Jewish leaders denounced intermarriage as a danger to the continued existence of Judaism.
In the United States of America, other causes, such as more people marrying later in life, have combined with intermarriage to cause the Jewish community to decrease dramatically; for every 20 adult Jews, there are now only 17 Jewish children. Some religious conservatives now even speak metaphorically of intermarriage as a silent holocaust
Silent Holocaust
The silent holocaust is a phrase that is used to refer to several unrelated events:* Abortion, among some involved in pro-life activism. One group has even named itself "Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust."...
. On the other hand, more tolerant and liberal Jews embrace interfaith marriage as an enriching contribution to a multicultural society. Regardless of attitudes to intermarriage, there is now an increasing effort to reach out to descendants of intermarried parents, each Jewish denomination focusing on those it defines as Jewish; secular and non-denominational Jewish organisations have sprung up to bring the descendants of intermarried parents back into the Jewish fold
Christian-Jewish relations
In Christian-Jewish relations, interfaith marriage and the associated phenomenon of Jewish assimilation are a matter of concern for both Jewish and Christian leaders. A number of Progressive ChristianProgressive Christianity
Progressive Christianity is the name given to a movement within contemporary Christianity characterized by willingness to question tradition, acceptance of human diversity with a strong emphasis on social justice or care for the poor and the oppressed and environmental stewardship of the Earth...
denominations have publicly declared that they will no longer proselytize
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
Jews. They have made use of dual-covenant theology
Dual-covenant theology
Dual-covenant theology is a Liberal Christian view that holds that Jews may simply keep the Law of Moses, because of the "everlasting covenant" between Abraham and God expressed in the Hebrew Bible, whereas Gentiles must convert to Christianity or alternatively accept the Seven Laws of Noah...
.
Jewish opposition to mixed marriages between Jewish women and Arab men
Many Israeli Jews oppose mixed relationships, particularly relationships between Jewish women and non-Jewish Arab men. A 2007 opinion survey found that more than half of Israeli Jews believed intermarriage is equivalent to “national treason”. A group of 35 Jewish men, known as "Fire for Judaism”, in Pisgat Zeev have started patrolling the town in an effort to stop Jewish women from dating Arab men. The municipality of Petah TikvaPetah Tikva
Petah Tikva known as Em HaMoshavot , is a city in the Center District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv.According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the city's population stood at 209,600. The population density is approximately...
has also announced an initiative to prevent interracial relationships, providing a telephone hotline for friends and family to "inform" on Jewish girls who date Arab men as well as psychologists to provide counselling. The town of Kiryat Gat launched a school programme in schools to warn Jewish girls against dating local Bedouin men.
In February 2010 Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
has reported that the Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
municipality had instituted an official, government-sponsored counseling program to discourage Jewish girls from dating and marrying Arab boys. According to supporters of the program, the girls are often ostacized for being Jewish, and (some) fall into drugs and alcohol or are prevented from leaving their Arab boyfriends.
See also
- Jewish views of marriage
- Interfaith marriage
- Who is a Jew
- My Yiddish Momme McCoy- a documentary about one woman's experience
External links
- Articles on Intermarriage
- half-jewish.org
- Dear Rabbi, Why Can't I Marry Her- a dialogue on intermarriage