“A rabbi under the huppah may boost Jewish engagement in intermarried homes,” according to a study released this past month by the Brandeis University Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies.
That’s welcome new data but no news for us, two New York-area rabbis trained at the Jewish Theological Seminary who have each made personal and professional sacrifices in seeking to find alternatives to the movement’s ban on rabbis officiating at intermarriages. But the findings do reinforce what our guts have been telling us for a long time: the moment for serious communal deliberation and decision is now. With intermarriage rates outside the Orthodox community as high as 71 percent according to the 2013 Pew study, for the American Jewish community this is a pressing priority today.”
