Jewish identity in conversionary and mixed marriages

Publication Date: January 1999

Publisher: Brandeis University Press

Author(s): Petter Y. Medding; Gary A. Tobin; Sylvia Barack Fishman; Mordechai Rimor

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: American Jews; Jewish identification; Marriage

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This article focuses on the qualitative aspects of Jewish intermarriage in the United States. It presents a theory of Jewish identity that provides a framework for the systematic empirical analysis of Jewish identification and behavior in households representing three basic marriage types: in-marriage, conversionary and mixed marriage. The study employs a typology for categorizing patterns of Jewish identification and behavior. The typology makes it possible to clarify whether and under what conditions Jewish identity is maintained in such marriages and to evaluate the character and content of that Jewish identity.