Taking a break for a moment from the all-encompassing Gaza war, I return to a no less controversial topic: Jewish intermarriage. Two weeks ago, Israel was abuzz for a minute because of the Mahmoud-Morel Jewish-Muslim wedding (it was really a Muslim-Muslim wedding – she converted). Shortly after the event, a new survey, by our Domain friend prof. Camil Fuchs, was published and taught us new things about the way Israelis view intermarriage and assimilation.
Prof. Fuchs kindly sent me the full data of this survey. It is interesting to read it and no less interesting to compare it to a similar set of data from three months ago. In both cases, a pollster asked Israelis about intermarriage, and in both cases the interpretation depends on our perceptions and expectations. If about one in 5 Israelis (19%) says that “the religion of the spouse” would not be important in choosing a mate – is that a lot? Is it a little? If 23% would not really worry about their non-Jewish loved one's conversion – they don't think conversion would be “important” for them in case they find a non-Jewish spouse – is that a lot or a little?
33% of Jewish Israelis, and 50% of secular Jewish Israelis, would not “object on principle” to a family member having romantic relations with a non-Jew. This could also be interpreted as a lot or as a little, and it could also be attributed to various motivations: maybe Israelis believe that within the context of Israeli life a non-Jew marrying a Jew is likely to become a Jew and will surely raise Jewish children. Or maybe this is testimony to a relatively weak Jewish identity of secular Jewish Israelis (100% of Haredi Israelis and 89% of religious Israelis would object to the relations).
There are several things worthy of note from this latest survey:
1. Israelis of Russian origin (17% of the Jewish population in this survey) are a separate category – with a much weaker inclination to oppose intermarriage. Only 14% of them would act to prevent a marriage between a family member and a non-Jewish spouse, compared to 25% of seculars, 53% of traditional Israelis (the average for Jews is 44%). 58% of Russians would not insist on the conversion of a non-Jewish spouse, compared to 34% of seculars and 12% of traditional Israelis. It will be interesting to see how these numbers change in 10-15 years. Previous studies have taught us that Russian immigrants gradually adopt the cultural-religious views of other Israelis.
2. Israelis – this is a little embarrassing but also quite natural – are opposed to intermarriage with an Arab much more than they are opposed to intermarriage with “a Christian from Europe\North America”. In the “Arab” case, 52% of secular Israelis, and 72% of Jewish Israelis, would “act to prevent” a marriage. In the “Europe\North America” case the numbers go down to 33% (secular) and 53% (Jewish Israelis).
3. The “not halachiclly Jewish” case is intriguing. Asked what they'd do if a family member was going to marry a “spouse from a family of immigrants that is not halachically Jewish” (that is, a family that was eligible to come to Israel by the Law of Return but isn't recognized as Jewish by the rabbinate) – a clear majority of secular Israelis (69%) would not object to the marriage. A minority of Israelis – 44% – would “act to prevent” the marriage. That is to say: the rabbinate is going to lose the battle of conversion – a position I have been holding for quite some time.
4. Israelis seem to think that they are immune to assimilation. 67% of them believe that assimilation is an “existential problem for the Jewish people” but only 33% of them believe it is “a significant problem” in Israel. I happen to agree with them, but not because I think there's something in their immune system or in their Jewish backbone that makes them immune. The only reason there is no problem of intermarriage in Israel is the shortage in candidates for intermarriage. As you can see in this survey, Arab Israelis are not good candidates even in the opinion of many Israelis who don't really oppose intermarriage. Other candidates need to be imported – a difficult task – or have to be the cause for emigration – which would make the marriage an assimilation problem but not “in Israel”.
5. By the way, Arab Israelis aren't much more enthusiastic about marrying Jews. 65% of them would avoid a romantic connection with a Jew (for Jews the percentage is 75%). 65% also say that religion would “be a factor in picking a spouse” (79% for Jews).
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