Double or Nothing?: Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage (review)

Quantitative research through the first two-thirds of the twentieth century generally documented low rates of mixed marriage for American Jews. This pattern of endogamy began to break down in selected localities as measured in the 1960s and, on the national scene in the 1970s, with an intensification in succeeding decades. This line of research was already being recognized in the general periodical literature when, as some may recall, Look magazine published its famous article, "The Vanishing American Jew."¹ Perhaps most people did not take this observation very seriously since before American Jews showed signs of disappearing, Look magazine vanished!

Another widely quoted piece of research in mid-century was the work of Erich Rosenthal who examined intermarriage in Iowa (1953–59) and Indiana (1960–63), both states with very small Jewish populations, and with reported mixed marriage rates of 42 percent and 49 percent respectively. These studies led Rosenthal to conclude that "in the absence of large-scale immigration and of a substantial rise in the birthrate, the current level of intermarriage formation is going to be of ever increasing significance in the future demographic balance of the Jewish population in the United States."² It might have seemed in the 1960s that Rosenthal's prediction, based on research in Iowa and Indiana, was an overgeneralization; but, in retrospect, he was quite prescient. Skepticism of these findings at that time might have been plausible since, in March 1957, the Bureau of the Census in its Current Population Survey, based on a substantial sample of 35,000 households, reported that 7% of the spouses of Jews were of a different religion.

Aside from the Census Bureau report, no other data existed at a national level throughout the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. The national picture began to change with the emergence of the first of three National Jewish Population Surveys (NJPS) with the following findings for the three survey years including overall rate (and the recent rate for one-half decade preceding the study): 1971: 9 percent (32 percent); 1990: 28 percent (52 percent, subsequently revised to 43 percent); 2000–01: 31 percent (47 percent).

Such quantitative research like NJPS's can specify, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, the size and scope of intermarriage and variations based on age, gender, region of the country, general and Jewish education, parental religious heritage, as well as offer behavioral contrasts between the intermarried and in-married. Nevertheless, only qualitative research, like that of Sylvia Barack Fishman in Double or Nothing: Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage, can delve more deeply into the dynamics of relationships preceding the mixed marriage and the consequential interactions of the spouses and their children after it.

Only in a qualitative study would we learn about the childhood experiences of self-consciousness that one woman recollected in bringing sandwiches to school on challah instead of white bread or the intra-familial dynamics surrounding interdating. Such research also permits an examination of the negotiations surrounding the wedding and the symbolic meaning associated with the ceremony and the officiants selected. Likewise, such research can reveal that for the Jewish partners, Jewishness could become more important as the marriage loomed than it was when they were teens or college students. As one informant put it, "I never felt so Jewish until I married my Christian wife" (53). It appears that the interactions with the "other" can lead to the intensification of one's own identity as well as a sensitivity to those of other religioethnic backgrounds as Fishman points out in "Part I: Through the Looking Glass."

In Part II, with its focus on "Living Mixed Traditions," we learn of the intricate dynamics of interpersonal relationships of the interfaith couples that can only be carefully described and analyzed in a qualitative study. We learn from a teenage focus group participant that "Christmas and...