When the nation’s largest Jewish federation convened its first-ever conference recently on engaging interfaith families, perhaps the most notable thing about it was the utter lack of controversy that greeted the event. There was a time when the stereotypical Jewish approach to intermarriage was to shun the offender and sit shiva. A generation ago, the…
Nothing creates controversy and polarization in the United States more than discussing same-sex marriage, and nothing brings the anxieties of American Jewry to the surface more than discussions of intermarriage. Both of these issues have gotten some attention in the American Jewish world over the past few weeks. And in the process, they have raised…
This story originally appeared on J. Weekly. Steve Schwartz’s mother did most of the cooking in his childhood home in suburban San Diego, but when his father, Miki, took to the stove, he had one specialty: mushroom omelets. “That’s the only thing he ever cooked, and from that, I think I got the idea that…
Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews is in many ways symbolic of the American Jewish experience. While Jews are a tiny minority — just 2% of the population — America is home to the world’s largest and arguably its freest Jewish community. Jewishness has ceased to be an obstacle to success as it was for much of…
When Jews choose to become Jewish leaders, their actions leave the realm of private decisions rendered for their personal benefit and become public decisions that carry deep symbolic and practical significance for us all. Of course, not everyone agrees. Rabbi Ellen Lippmann recently described in these pages her experience as an intermarried rabbi, arguing that…
New research shows that participants in Taglit-Birthright are inclined to marry later than their Jewish peers. Professor Leonard Saxe of Brandeis University, who presented the finding Wednesday at a conference in Jerusalem, said that this tendency to delay marriage was apparently linked to a desire to find a Jewish partner for life, which, in many…
In response to Rabbi Ellen Lippmann’s open letter in these pages to the board of governors of Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, asking that it reconsider its policy of not ordaining rabbinical students who have non-Jewish spouses or partners, I offer my own open letter to the board: I am writing to urge you…
Over the past half century, intermarriage has become increasingly common in the United States among all religions – but among Jews at a higher rate than any other. Why that is the case is one of the questions Naomi Schaefer Riley probes in her new book, “‘Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage is…
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