Jews Marrying Jews

Should Jews marry Jews or are they free to marry non-Jews? That is one of the most controversial issues that surround the Jewish world today. The Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements view this issue very differently.

The Orthodox Jews view calls for much resentment because it comes across as a sort of discrimination, but mainly because of a deep emotional partiality towards their non-Jewish partner. Judaism’s opposition to Jews marrying non-Jews is based on the explicit prohibition in the Torah (Deuteronomy 7:3): “Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughter to his son and do not take his daughter for your son.” The Torah continues with the reason (Verse 4): “[If you do], they will lead your son away from Me, causing him to worship other gods…” On the issue of intermarriage, there is a clear, grave prohibition in Jewish religious law, or halacha, against a Jew marrying anyone but another Jew.

According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, Jews were marrying non-Jews in growing numbers, so that by the late 1980s, more than half of Jews getting married entered into mixed marriages. Highlighting this point, Joel Roth and Daniel Gordis (in one of a series of teshuvot on intermarriage and keruv [outreach]) note that intermarried Jews should not serve as elected officials in synagogues because they are more than passive members of a halakhically improper marriage -- they made an active decision to enter into that relationship, a relationship which we consider of paramount danger to the