abstract
| - Interfaith marriage in Judaism (also called mixed marriage or intermarriage) was historically looked upon with very strong disfavour by Jewish leaders, and it remains an enormously controversial issue amongst Jewish leaders and Jewish women. 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. Marriages 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 the problems that might arise if they attempted to have a religious marriage together. A number of rabbis 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.
|