intermarry

intr.v., -ried, -ry·ing, -ries.

1. To marry a member of another group.
2. To be bound together by the marriages of members.
3. To marry within one's family, tribe, or clan.

intermarriage in'ter·mar'riage (-măr'ĭj) n.

Marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew has historically been anathema to the Jewish community. The Pentateuch, referring to marriage between Israelites and members of the seven indigenous Canaanite tribes, states, "You shall not intermarry with them; do not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your children from following Me to worship other gods" (Deut. 7:3-4). The motive was fear of the attraction of Idolatry; the end result was a cohesive and tight-knit Community. However, despite this specific injunction, biblical examples of marriage to pagans abound, from Moses on. Many were political matches, as kings took wives from among the neighboring peoples. One of the most notorious was Ahab's union with Jezebel, the Baal-worshiping Phoenician princess whose influence enhanced the practice of the Baal cult in the Northern Kingdom.

A particularly flagrant example of widespread intermarriage on all levels of society occurred in the period of the Return from the Babylonian Exile (6th-5th cent. BCE), which elicited a most extreme response, as recorded in the Book of Ezra (9-10). Upon discovering that the returning Israelites were marrying local pagan women, Ezra extracted a solemn agreement from the people to banish the "foreign" wives and their children. Since that time, marriage to any non-Jew has been invalid according to the Halakhah; a rabbi could not officiate nor is a get (bill of Divorce) required when such a marriage is dissolved. As Jewish law determines that the child follows the religion of the mother, offspring of such a union are Jewish if the woman is Jewish and no halakhic stigma attaches to the children. In the reverse situation, the children are not Jewish.

Marrying "out of the fold" has had serious implications throughout Jewish history, variously representing a lack of commitment to the religion and the community; a response to persecution; political expediency; in modern times, a response to the Enlightenment and the granting of equal rights to Jews; escape from the community and a consequence of the blurring of ethnic lines and the entry of Jews into institutes of higher education.

Until recent times "marrying out" was condemned throughout the Jewish community and parents would often observe mourning rites for a child who had intermarried. Emancipation in the West as well as the rise of non-Orthodox movements in Judaism over the past 150 years loosened rabbinic control over most of the Jewish community and introduced an element of individual choice. One of the main areas of Jewish life affected is intermarriage. Today, the widespread incidence of intermarriage in both the free countries and the former Communist world, and the degree of social acceptance it now receives, are a matter of grave concern to religious leaders, and are the subject of innumerable studies and learned papers. In the United States, the intermarriage rate has been over 50% since 1985 and about a third of American Jews were married to non-Jews at the outset of the new millenium. Responses and opinions vary. The majority of rabbis still do not officiate such marriages; a significant percentage of Reform rabbis in the United States will do so if convinced that the non-Jewish partner is genuinely interested in the possibility of future conversion, and in order not to totally alienate the Jewish partner. Reconstructionist rabbis will officiate at a secular ceremony. The Reform movement's Outreach Program in the United States addresses itself to mixed families in an attempt to bring them into the community. In many non-Orthodox congregations throughout the world, both partners in a mixed marriage are active in the synagogue and in the Jewish community, and their children attend the Jewish school; some congregations draw the line at actual membership.

Many Reform leaders presently accept the principle of Patrilineal Descent, by which they recognize the child of a mixed marriage as Jewish regardless of which parent is Jewish, provided the child is raised as a Jew, given a Jewish education, and upon achieving adulthood continues to personally identify himself with the Jewish community. This is in contrast to the traditional halakhic view by which the child's religion follows that of the mother.

The designation "intermarriage" does not relate to a union between a born Jew and a converted Jew, which is a Jewish marriage in every sense of the word.

---

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The verb has one meaning:

Meaning #1: marry within the same ethnic, social, or family group

---

Dansk (Danish)
v. intr. - indgiftes, gifte sig indbyrdes

Nederlands (Dutch)
gemengd huwen

Français (French)
v. intr. - pratiquer l'intermariage (au sein d'une même famille), se marier (entre groupes ethniques ou raciaux différents)

Deutsch (German)
v. - Mischehen schließen, untereinander heiraten

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - επιμιγνύομαι, αλληλοπαντρεύομαι

Italiano (Italian)
imparentarsi con matrimonio

Português (Portuguese)
v. - casar-se com consangüíneos, casar-se com alguém de outro grupo ou família

Русский (Russian)
породниться путем брака

Español (Spanish)
v. intr. - casarse entre consanguíneos o entre parientes, casarse (personas de distintas razas, etc.)

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - (om familjer, raser e.d.) förenas genom giftermål, praktisera ingifte

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
通婚, 近亲结婚

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. intr. - 通婚, 近親結婚

한국어 (Korean)
v. intr. - (다른 종족 등과) 결혼하다, 근친결혼하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 結婚する, 近親結婚をする

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يتزاوج ضمن أسرتين, يتزوج ضمن الأسرة الواحدة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. intr. - ‮חברו זו לזו ע"י נישואים (עדות, משפחות וכו')‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.