Embracing the stranger

the long version

Does intermarriage necessarily spell the end of an individual's Jewish life - and the end of the Jewish community? Ellen Jaffe McClain, a deeply committed, temple-going, holiday-observing Jew who married a non-Jew, argues vehemently that it does not. Exploding a number of myths about intermarriage and the intermarried, McClain challenges the misuse of statistics to read all too many people out of Jewish life. She contends that recent changes in American society have the potential to make intermarriage less of a threat to American Jewry. Who are the Jews who are intermarrying? And who are the non-Jews they are marrying? What factors other than assimilation are responsible for the rise of intermarriage? How can we help non-Jewish partners find a place in Jewish life? Embracing the Stranger combines hard data, anecdotes, and interviews with personal reminiscence and cultural commentary to produce an eye-opening account of why Jews intermarry and what concerned Jews - as a community and as individuals - ought to be doing about it.