Intermarriage and Rabbinic Officiation

Publication Date: January 1989

Publisher: American Jewish Committee

Author(s): Egon Mayer

Research Area: Culture and religion; Social conditions

Keywords: American Jews; Family; Jewish identification

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Whether rabbinic officiation at mixed marriages in fact has consequences for the future Jewishness of the couples involved is a matter of conjecture. To shed light on this issue, the present study offers some data from a survey of intermarried couples, both conversionary and mixed. It compares certain measures of Jewish identification in mixed-married couples and in conversionary families. It also compares these measures in mixed-married couples who were married by rabbis and those who were not either because a rabbi refused them or because they never asked a rabbi.