Most Jewish communities continue to cite intermarriage as the most serious threat to Jewish continuity. Contrary to this view, The A–Z of Intermarriage reveals that intermarriage is a force for good in the lives of Jewish families and communities. Written by Rabbi Denise Handlarski, an intermarried rabbi, The A–Z of Intermarriage is part story, part strategy, and all heart. Fun to read and full of helpful and practical tips and tools for couples and families, this book is the perfect “how-to” manual for living a happy and balanced intermarried life.

Most Jewish communities continue to cite intermarriage as the most serious threat to Jewish continuity. Contrary to the view that intermarriage is a crisis for Judaism, The A-Z of Intermarriage reveals that intermarriage can be a force for good in the lives of Jewish families and communities. Written by Rabbi Denise Handlarski, an intermarried rabbi, The A-Z of Intermarriage is part story, part strategy, and all heart, as well as a coming together of religious source material, cultural context, and personal narrative. Fun to read and full of helpful and practical tips and tools for couples and families, this book is the perfect "how-to" manual for living a happy and balanced intermarried life. This book is for people who: - Are intermarried, open to intermarriage, or considering intermarriage - Have family members or friends who are intermarried or entering into an interfaith/intercultural relationship - Are seeking models, guidance, and tips about creating a happy relationship and family - Are interested in points of view about intermarriage and/or Judaism they have never heard or considered - Love "how-to" books - Want to know more about Jewish approaches to life, learning, and love

"This book examines intermarriage among Mexicans in the Tucson area between 1860 and 1930, shifting the focus away from marriages by the landed elite and onto the working class"--Provided by publisher.

Marriage and social inequality are closely interrelated. Marriage is dependent on the structure of marriage markets, and marriage patterns have consequences for social inequality. This book demonstrates that in most modern societies the educa tional system has become an increasingly important marriage market, particularly for those who are highly qualified. Educational expansion in general and the rising educational participation of women in particular unintentionally have increased the rate of "assortative meeting" and assortative mating across birth cohorts. Rising educational homogamy means that social inequality is further enhanced through marriage because better (and worse) educated single men and women pool their economic and sociocultural advantages (and disadvantages) within couples. In this book we study the changing role of the educational system as a marriage market in modern societies from a cross-national comparative perspective. Using life-history data from a broad range of industrialized countries and longitudinal statistical models, we analyze the process of spouse selection in the life courses of single men and women, step by step. The countries included in this book vary widely in important characteristics such as demographic behavior and institutional characteristics. The life course approach explicitly recognizes the dynamic nature of partner decisions, the importance of educational roles and institutional circum stances as young men and women move through their life paths, and the cumulation of advantages and disadvantages experienced by individuals.

In the last decade, 45% of all marriages in the U.S. were between people of different faiths. The rapidly growing number of mixed-faith families has become a source of hope, encouraging openness and tolerance among religious communities that historically have been insular and suspicious of other faiths. Yet as Naomi Schaefer Riley demonstrates in 'Til Faith Do Us Part, what is good for society as a whole often proves difficult for individual families: interfaith couples, Riley shows, are less happy than others and certain combinations of religions are more likely to lead to divorce. Drawing on in-depth interviews with married and once-married couples, clergy, counselors, sociologists, and others, Riley shows that many people enter into interfaith marriages without much consideration of the fundamental spiritual, doctrinal, and practical issues that divide them. Couples tend to marry in their twenties and thirties, a time when religion diminishes in importance, only to return to faith as they grow older and raise children, suffer the loss of a parent, or experience other major life challenges. Riley suggests that a devotion to diversity as well as to a romantic ideal blinds many interfaith couples to potential future problems. Even when they recognize deeply held differences, couples believe that love conquers all. As a result, they fail to ask the necessary questions about how they will reconcile their divergent worldviews-about raising children, celebrating holidays, interacting with extended families, and more. An obsession with tolerance at all costs, Riley argues, has made discussing the problems of interfaith marriage taboo. 'Til Faith Do Us Part is a fascinating exploration of the promise and peril of interfaith marriage today. It will be required reading not only for interfaith couples or anyone considering interfaith marriage, but for all those interested in learning more about this significant, yet understudied phenomenon and the impact it is having on America.

“Captures the telling details and the idiosyncratic trajectory of interfaith relationships and marriages in America.” —The Forward When American Jewish men intermarry, goes the common assumption, they and their families are “lost” to the Jewish religion. In this provocative book, Keren R. McGinity shows that it is not necessarily so. She looks at intermarriage and parenthood through the eyes of a post-World War II cohort of Jewish men and discovers what intermarriage has meant to them and their families. She finds that these husbands strive to bring up their children as Jewish without losing their heritage. Marrying Out argues that the “gendered ethnicity” of intermarried Jewish men, growing out of their religious and cultural background, enables them to raise Jewish children. McGinity’s book is a major breakthrough in understanding Jewish men’s experiences as husbands and fathers, how Christian women navigate their roles and identities while married to them, and what needs to change for American Jewry to flourish. Marrying Out is a must read for Jewish men and all the women who love them. “An important analysis of this thorny issue . . . filled with vivid vignettes about intermarried couples.” —Jewish Book World

Going beyond classical theoretical approaches, Intermarriage throughout History provides a rich and unique collection of twenty-five essays which shed light on various models of family formation through non-homogamic marriage, from an historical and multi-disciplinary perspective. The volume originated from an international conference held at Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj, Romania, in early summer 2013, with a large international participation drawn mostly from Europe, Russia, North and South America. The book also has its roots in the long academic tradition of family and demographic historical and ethnographic studies in Transylvania, where scholars have been particularly active in these fields during recent decades at the international level. Given the strong pressures towards endogamy, people in the past who had a ‘mixed’ marriage deserve researchers’ full attention. How did they overcome the obstacles put in their path by church, family, state and community? Can scholars disclose the reasons for their remarkable choice of partner? And what were the implications of their mixed marriage for their daily lives and those of their children? Mixed marriages offer a window on the tensions between societal norms and social control on the one hand, and individual variation and individual choice, or ‘agency’, on the other.

"An examination of intersecting racial, ethnic, and religious identities among couples where one partner is Jewish American and the other is Asian American"--

This handbook provides a global perspective on contemporary demographic theories and studies of marriage and the family. Inside, readers will find a comprehensive analysis that enables demographic comparison between and across international borders. Coverage is centered around four main sections that present a history of marriage and the family, detail relevant data and measurement concerns, examine global marriage practices, analyze interactions of such demographic characteristics as age, sex, and race with marriage and the family, and consider public policy, contemporary trends, and future directions. In addition, the book includes research on current social issues such as alternative family structures, cohabitation, divorce, boomerang children, and adoption. The family is universal but extremely varied in form and function. This handbook provides students, researchers, and policymakers with an all-inclusive, international demographic analysis that fully investigates the diverse nature of the modern family.

Over half of all American Jewish children are being raised by intermarried parents. This demographic group will have a tremendous impact on American Judaism as it is lived and practiced in the coming decades. To date, however, in both academic studies about Judaism and in the popular imagination, such children and their parents remain marginal. Jennifer A. Thompson takes a different approach. In Jewish on Their Own Terms, she tells the stories of intermarried couples, the rabbis and other Jewish educators who work with them, and the conflicting public conversations about intermarriage among American Jews. Thompson notes that in the dominant Jewish cultural narrative, intermarriage symbolizes individualism and assimilation. Talking about intermarriage allows American Jews to discuss their anxieties about remaining distinctively Jewish despite their success in assimilating into American culture. In contrast, Thompson uses ethnography to describe the compelling concerns of all of these parties and places their anxieties firmly within the context of American religious culture and morality. She explains how American and traditional Jewish gender roles converge to put non-Jewish women in charge of raising Jewish children. Interfaith couples are like other Americans in often harboring contradictory notions of individual autonomy, universal religious truths, and obligations to family and history. Focusing on the lived experiences of these families, Jewish on Their Own Terms provides a complex and insightful portrait of intermarried couples and the new forms of American Judaism that they are constructing.