Rabbis Talk About Intermarriage [Paperback]

Gary A. Tobin; Katherine G. Simon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1893671003 | ISBN-13: 978-1893671003 | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

What do rabbis have to say about intermarriage? Nearly all Jews have an opinion and all Jews have a stake concerning intermarriage. Each member of the tribe is considered precious and irreplaceable. Passions about intermarriage, debates about how to prevent it or reap benefits from its consequences have at their core a genuine concern about group survival. Rabbis are by definition at the center of these issues. Rabbis face daily decisions about whether or not to perform wedding ceremonies with intermarried couples, how to counsel interfaith couples, what they will teach their congregants about intermarriage, and how interfaith families fit into the synagogue. Rabbis Talk About Intermarriage takes a broad, thorough, contemporary look at the diverse rabbinic response to intermarriage and the conflicts it has produced.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Tobin and Simon have written a balanced and substantial examination of the practices and attitudes of American rabbis toward intermarriage. --Rabbi David A. Teutch, President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

This book sheds light on how rabbis deal with intermarriage and presents recommendations to guide us into positive engagement. --Rabbi Rachel Cowan, Director, Jewish Life Program, Nathan Cummings Foundation

Beyond sociological analysis, the authors propose programs, strategies, and attitudes worthy of serious consideration by seminaries, synagogues, and the laity. --Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, Valley Beth Shalom, author of For Those Who Can't Believe

About the Author

Gary A. Tobin, Ph.D., is president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco and the director of the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Program in Jewish Policy Research at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He has published widely in the areas of Jewish organizational planning, philanthropy, and foundations in the Jewish community. He is the author of Opening the Gates: How Proactive Conversion Can Revitalize the Jewish Community (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publisher, 1999). Katherine G. Simon, Ph.D., is currently the director of Research and Professional Development for the Coalition of Essential Schools in Oakland, California. She is involved in research and professional development efforts for the national school reform movement. She received her Ph.D. in Education from the Stanford University School of Education. She is the author of The Place of Meaning: The Moral and Intellectual Life of High Schools (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).

Product Details

• Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: Institute for Jewish & Community Research (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893671003
• ISBN-13: 978-1893671003
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,719,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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3.0 out of 5 stars a small pure group or a large watered-down one?, March 4, 2006

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Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rabbis Talk About Intermarriage (Paperback)

A study done in 1990 stated that 52% of Jewish Americans marry non-Jews. This book examines how rabbis, from various denominations, deal with this trend. Instead of having snowball samples and taped interviews, this study actually quotes sermons that rabbis have given to their congregations on the matter.

This book does a great job in showing the catch-22 in which these clergy members exist. On the one hand, there is nothing terrible about mixed-religious marriages, but if you were trained that a marriage not involving two Jews is not a Jewish marriage, then what can you do? How can you curb intermarriage without hurting the feelings of the resultant children who you wish would identify as Jewish? Many oppressed groups worry about mingling with the majority. If you only accept the pure, you are speaking to a disappearing population, but if you count just anybody with one drop, your culture and home base get watered down to the point where it might as well not even exist as unique. African Americans, my own community, and Native Americans struggle with this concern. This book would be interesting to many non-Jews as well as Jews.

I have two problems with this book. First, it should really just be a magazine article and not a whole book. It got repetitive quickly and does not have to be half as long as it is. Secondly, the authors use several negative adjectives to describe rabbis on this issue: anguished, isolated, upset, resigned, etc. I am worried that this will make Jewish leaders look "wimpy" and only fuel anti-Semitism in an already oppressive global situation. I hope that enemies of Jewish people do not use this book against them.