Jews and Intermarriage

Monday February 17, 2014

For my Jewish history on Sunday we spent a majority of class debating and discussing the issue of intermarriage. The topic started after discussing the story of Ezra in the Tanakh, Ezra was told by the king of Persia to go back to Judah and take over control. When he arrived in Judah he became really upset at the Jewish people for marrying people from outside of Judaism.

For my article this week I looked closely at the issue of intermarriage in relation to Judaism. I read an article called Intermarriage: Can Anything Be Done? By Jack Wertheimer on www.mosaic.com. The article talked about intermarriage based on how civilization developed will Judaism continue. They went into detail such as culture becoming more Americanized, and this generation has a bigger amount of freedom for their decisions. Based on what I read in this article and what we talked about in class, I really am unsure what my answer is to the question is Judaism going to end because of Intermarriage. Personally I believe that times are definitely different right now. Back in the Tanakh people married for wealth and royalties and what ever could get their family more land or animals. In modern day society, people usually married for love. Therefor who knows who you will fall in love with so how can you say you can not married anyone but Jewish people.  In the article it talks about the influence of parents on who you marry. In my personal life I was always told from a young age to marry a Jewish guy. Based on my beliefs on life and religion I see myself marrying a Jewish guy. This is not to say that because personally I want to marry a Jewish guy that if my friend or family member were to marry a non Jew that I would not approve. It really depends on the choices the couple makes and how they go about it. Overall I don’t think that the Jewish population will die because of intermarriage because the Jewish people have had their struggles in the past so its just the issue on this generation and I believe it will pass with time.