The Denver Jewish news., 1919-04-17

| from following God. u. and He VII
destroy thee quickly" 9Dcuteronomy
Vii, 8 IL. In the days If Nehemiah,
this forecast was vividly verified, For
Nehemiah observed that the children
I OF mixed marriages were speaking
the foreign tongue of their non-Jewish
| mothers. They were not growihs up
to speak the Language of the Jews
lie, to think, talk and act ns Jews,
Nehemiah xiii, 23-2T). This result Is
almost inevitable. For the children
| will take the course OF least resistance
The religion of the mother Chris
tianity, is the dominant religion, of
| the land, and therefore compaiutlye-
ly easy to follow the religion OF the
father is the religion or q snau MN
GRITTY, set about with difficulties OF
observance in nou-Jewish land, 70
he Jew means. to set on oneself
religious restrictions and social lmi-
tsitions. What chances are there that
the children of u mixed marriage VIII
make any serious attempt to keep Inc
| difficult Jewish seventh day sabbath
instead of the easy Christian first day
Sunday? What prospect is there that
the children of mixed marriage VIII
celebrate Cllanucah. an obscure jew
ish festival, instead of giving them
selves up to the Christmas which all
the world will be celebrating: The
religion of the minority struggles
every moment against absorption, in
the religion of the. majority. If the
clild's parentage gives him, an equal
choice, he will almost inevitably choose
the easy religion of the, majority, and
the fuller social opportunity that is
before the non-Jew.
The facts themselves prove this:
.'All statistical evidence on, the sub
ject shows that about Is per cent. of
all the children born to Jews married
10 Christians are baptized immediate
Iy at birth and only % per cent, are
raised as Jews" (Fischbcrg).. in
Hungary, of the i,O69 mixed marriages
contracted during the ten years 1873
To 1901, S5.13 per cent. declared that \
they desired to bring up their children
US Christians, and only 1I.S7 per cent.
decided in favor of the Jewish re-
licion. Similarly i'll New South Wales,
where the husband was Jewish, only
$3.50 per cent of the children were
raised as Jews. In Copenhagen, out
j.. $40 families OF Jews married to-
Christians, 81 raised their children rs
Jews. 2SS as. Christians. In Prussia, !
il the year 1905, only 22.G1 per. cent.
of the children of mixed marriages
were raised as Jews. These figures
tend to become more and more ex-I
treme as the years go. .9n,
The Next Generation. IA,
Even in those cases where the chill
drcn of mixed marriage are brought
M as Jews, this does not represent
the entire loss sustained by Judaism
thru intcrmarriage. \ person who
has one parent Of Christian origin
even if raised us a jew. is more like
ly to marry u Christian than u Jcw,t
because socially he comes into intt-i
mate contact with his Christian rcia-
tives and their friends. II is also
not so difficult for him to be baptiz-
cd. because lie considers himself as
Iuucl of Christian as of Jewish orgni,'
1t is Ruppin's opinion that hardly 40
ucr cent. of the children resulting
from mixed marriages remain Jews
lar any considerable length of time.
of these it is doubtful whether any
Jews are left after. two or three gen
crations.'I Uischbcrg,o
Religious Objections.
| In the face of this disastrous Ell
feet of mixed marriages on. Jewish
life. and more especially in the face
OF their increasing frequency, 4 may
he asked what is the modern Jewish
attitude toward these facts. The Jew
ish attitude towards mixed marriage
is the same as the historical attitude
cf the church Many of the church
councils issued edicts prohibiting
Christians TO marry Jewish wives.
Every religious group is Jealous for
its own integrity. But W. jews nave
an added reason for zcllously strug-
Cling to maintain ourselves us Jews.
For we constitute something more
than religious group. We arc also
an historically distinctive people.
CTo bcoSantinucd)-