American Jewry all but the Orthodox long ago lost this struggle
W
e have come a long way. Once upon a time, the Jewish community viewed intermarriage as a calamity, to be fought vigorously. Those who married out were all but ostracized. Some parents whose children married out of the faith even sat shivah for them. To marry out of the faith was to commit national suicide, a goodbye to Judaism.
No more. American Jewry all but the Orthodox long ago lost that struggle. Ignorance and runaway assimilation have won the day. Those hoping to eradicate Jewish uniqueness have triumphed, and today the intermarriage rate is over 70%: Out of every ten non-Orthodox Jews who get married in the US, seven are marrying non-Jews. The prospect that children and certainly grandchildren of such marriages will be raised as Jews is practically nil. For such couples this is the end of the Jewish line.