Intermarriage and Judaism

Shalom! This video is about Judaism and intermarriage and does Judaism say about it. Well, first of all it is prohibited by the Torah, the Prophets and the Codes of Jewish Law. Deuteronomy 7:3 prohibits it as a mitzvah and then the Maia Chapter 10 prohibits it and my monities based on these sources says it is prohibited but in reality, Jews have always intermarried. We have the saying in the Book of Ezra in the Bible where Ezra says to the Jews coming back to Jerusalem from exile and the Jews living there get rid of your nine Jewish wives. So, obviously, Jews have always intermarried and today, in western society, in the free society, the rates are somewhere around of all young Jews marrying non-Jews who do not convert. So, what is the official view of the, what do we do with this situation? And is it racist or is it wrong? First of all, it is not racist because Jews are not a race. It is different in some domineering black person, plenty of black Jews. In Ethiopia etcetera… and brown Jews and yellow Jews and not all Jews are Caucasian. In fact, in Israel, half the Jews have the origins in the Arab world. So, why does the Torah prohibit it and what is the view about it? Well, if you think that the Jews has the right to exist, then you want them to exist and when you intermarry it is much more difficult to raise Jewish children, Jewish families statistically. It does not mean that there are not Jewish families, intermarried families raising Jewish children. We have many in our synagogue and as you look at the younger grades of most religious schools, you have that phenomenon where the non-Jewish parent is slapping the Hebrew’s scroll. But it is more difficult and then sometimes when you have this situation where the non-Jew goes to church and then the children are split. Couples have this, in my opinion, a ridiculous idea about raising the kids on both religions, completely confusing. So, that is one of the main reasons why it is a big problem. We want the Jewish people to thrive and survive and it makes it much more difficult. Roughly, one third of the intermarried couples claim or a fourth that they are raising Jewish children and so far it is very difficult to show evidence of Jewish grandchildren of intermarried couples. Of that being as it may, what do we do with the phenomena about half of our young Jewish are marrying? In every family, there are intermarriages probably. Well, we warmly welcome them and not all communities do but certainly their reform and reconstruction in these communities all have and the conservative movement is now making a much more aggressive effort to welcome them and bring them into our communities. In a conservative synagogue technically the non-Jew can not be a member because it is a Jewish synagogue after all but they participate fully in the life of the congregation. There are some rituals in the service they can participate in and some they can not just like a non-Jew does not take communion, I mean a Jew does not take communion in the church and that varies by synagogue by synagogue. In terms of the status of the children of course, I have other videos on the stand of Jewish children but in the main, according to reform and reconstruction is if the Father is Jewish or the Mother is Jewish, the child’s race is a Jew, they are Jewish but that is not traditional Judaism. Conservative and Orthodox say that the child has to have a Jewish mother or be converted and we do a lot of conversions of children whose mothers are not Jewish and having converted but the parents want to have the child as Jewish. So, in our synagogue, the child has to have be a Jewish, either by the birth of the mother or converted to have a life cycle bar mitzvah. Now, about Rabbi’s performing intermarriages. Well, reform and reconstruction is Rabbi’s have the option, some do, some do not. Conservative Rabbi’s does not have the option or forbidden to by our rules of ordination and our binnacle assembly associations, orthodox Rabbi’s would it not. But that does not mean because I can not preside or be present in an intermarriage that I do not warmly welcome intermarried couples to the congregation to work with them to help them a Jewish lives. So, I hope that explains, a little bit about the view of intermarriage in Judaism. It is forbidden to apply Jewish Law. There are many things that are forbidden by Jewish law and many things that are supported by Jewish Law. Of course, Jews violate myths vow regularly. All kinds of myths vow, we try and to the best we can to inspire adherence to Jewish tradition but one people do not. We work with them and of course welcome them warmly. It is called Keyruv and tries to have them raise Jewish families and we want the Jewish people to thrive and survive and I know, all those interested have the same goal in mind. Question of how you get there and if there are any questions about it, and you have any questions about your circumstances. Feel free to email me at Rabbi@ehnt.org. Shalom.