Intermarriage of Jews and non-Jews: The global situation and its meaning

This is timely because there have been several recent and very significant advances in research on the scope of Jewish intermarriage in Israel, where about 45% of all Jews in the world live, as well as in the United States of America, where another 40% of Jews live, and indeed in Europe and other parts of the Jewish Diaspora, containing in total about 15% of all Jews. [...] Intermarriage is conducive to the reduction of Jewish population growth because in the context of the Diaspora, the offspring of exogamous (Jew to non-Jew) marriages are more likely to distance themselves from Judaism, Jewish society and Jewish culture than the offspring of endogamous (Jew to Jew) marriages. [...] This is far above the national fertility in these countries (in the range of 1.5-2.0 children per woman), and closer to, or even above, fertility of Muslim populations in these countries, estimated to be in the range of 2.2 to 3.0 children per woman.21 However, it is important to note that the high levels of Jewish fertility in Austria and the UK arise from the strong presence of strictly Orthodox. [...] It has also shown the whole spectrum of community-specific situations: highlighting the lowest levels of intermarriage (in Israel at about 5%), the highest levels in Northern and Eastern Europe (approximately 55%-75%) and the intermediate levels in the USA and much of the rest of the Jewish Diaspora. [...] The same is observed across time: the growth of both the haredi and the religious non-haredi Jewish segments tends to drive down the rate of intermarriage.