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 Jewish community. That they should understand the fact that their marriage must affect their status in the Jewish community is not unfair or unethical; it is obligatory and desirable." The Conservative view essentially goes along with the Orthodox view on this issue. The Conservative Movement has determined that intermarriage is destructive to the values of Judaism as a whole. Further, the movement has constantly reaffirmed that intermarriage has no validity in Jewish law.

As far as the Reform movement is concerned The rise in mixed marriage and the embrace of Jews of patrilineal descent (children of one Jewish parent who were raised as Jews) had changed the demographics of the Reform Movement, contributing to a growing desire for increased learning, spiritual expression, and guidelines for Reform principles. The Reform movement supports Jewish marriages, even as they encourage non-Jewish