Jewish weddings : Views On Intermarriage
Be it China, America, Egypt or India...religion has always been a very sensitive issue. Not every body has been open to the idea of including a person from a different religion, into theirs. As far as marriage is concerned, intermarriage has always been discouraged. Judaism is no different.
The Jews have always been very strict about intermarriage. This was never encouraged. Any Jew getting married to someone from a different religion was disowned from the community. The past has seen very few cases of intermarriage. Even if it did happen, it would either be if the person hated his/her religion and did not want to be in it any more. This is when they choose to marry someone out of their religion and be out of Judaism.
As far as the present scenario goes, Jewish intermarriage is a very common affair. It is almost as common as having biscuits as snacks with tea or coffee. More than half the population of Jews marry outside their religion. This has effected the Jewish population to a large extent. The world has not more that 13million Jews, which is less than a quarter of one percent of the world's population. This has been a very sensitive issue with all the Jews, especially when they see that their community is almost getting dormant.
Torah, the religious book of the Jews do not permit them to marry anyone outside their religion. According to the book, if the Jews get married to a non-Jew, then the children shall grow up practicing a different religion and worshiping a different God. One of the ten commandments strictly prohibits a Jew from worshiping any other God other than their own. "You shall not intermarry with them: do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. For you will turn your children away from Me to worship other gods..." (Deuteronomy 7:1-3).
Credit has always been given to time for bringing about a lot of change. Situations may be good or bad, but time has always played the role of bringing about a change. The change could either be positive or negative. The Orthodox Jews have never encouraged intermarriage. They have always believed that Jews going for intermarriage are the ones who rebel against their religion. Such rebels were no more considered a part of the Jewish community. With time flying by, new views are taking over. The opinion of the conservative Jews over intermarriage is much different from that of the Orthodox Jews. Although the conservative Jews are not much in favor of intermarriage, they do not neglect it completely. Orthodox Jews disowned all those who went in for intermarriage but the conservatives are more open to the idea. Intermarriage is not a time of celebration for the latter, but they definitely try to find a new meaning to it. Conservative Jews do not consider intermarriage as a process where they get drifted away from their religion, but they see it as a process of bringing people from a different community to their own. Children are not disowned but encouraged to maintain their Jewish identity and also invite their partner to take part in their religion.
America had witnessed a lot of Jewish intermarriage. As far as the future is concerned, intermarriage is expected to be on a rise. The Orthodox Jewish community may still be negative on their thoughts of intermarriage but this is not the case with the conservative Jews. The world is much in need of a lot of harmony. Looking through a positive angle, intermarriage could be an effective way to bring about the harmony.
Sean Carter writes on June Wedding,Wedding, family, relationships, women issues, religion, love and friendship. He also writes on holidays and celebrations around the world. He is a writer with special interest in ecard industry. He writes for 123greetings.com
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