The Newest Jews? Understanding Jewish American and Asian American Marriages

Posted in Articles, Asian Diaspora, Judaism, Media Archive, Religion, Social Science, United States on 2015-01-18 18:12Z by Steven

The Newest Jews? Understanding Jewish American and Asian American Marriages

Contemporary Jewry
July 2012, Volume 32, Issue 2
pages 135-166
DOI: 10.1007/s12397-012-9078-y

Helen K. Kim, Associate Professor of Sociology
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington

Noah Leavitt, Research Associate
Department of Sociology
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington

This paper investigates how racial, ethnic and religious identities intersect among couples where one spouse is Jewish American of any racial or ethnic descent and one spouse is Asian American of any religion or ethnic descent. While intermarriage is certainly not limited to these kinds of partnerships, there is reason to believe that these partnerships may become increasingly common when investigated along racial, ethnic, and religious dimensions. This study incorporates interviews with 31 intermarried couples residing in the Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Oakland, New York, and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. In particular, we highlight participants’ discussions of two main subjects: shared values within their partnerships and racial, ethnic, and religious identities of children, if present. Our paper expands the broader sociological literature on intermarriage as well as the specific literatures on intermarriage for Jewish Americans and intermarriage for Asian Americans.

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New Demographic Perspectives on Studying Intermarriage in the United States

Posted in Articles, Census/Demographics, Judaism, Media Archive, Religion, United States on 2013-05-03 03:25Z by Steven

New Demographic Perspectives on Studying Intermarriage in the United States

Contemporary Jewry
Published Online: May 2013
pages 1-17
DOI: 10.1007/s12397-013-9103-9

Bruce A. Phillips, Professor of Jewish Communal Service
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles

The study of Jewish intermarriage has largely ignored the measurement conventions prevalent in the field of demography such as using first marriages (as opposed to current marriages) and not controlling for mixed parentage. I re-analyze the NJPS 2000–2001 using first marriages and controlling for parentage and find evidence that intermarriage has leveled off among single ancestry Jews. Jewish intermarriage is placed in an American context by (1) putting in Kalmijn’s conceptual schema and (2) using the odds-ratio to compare intermarriage in controlling for group size. Single ancestry Jews are surprisingly endogamous compared with other groups in America. Two new directions for further research in a demographic context are discussed: including non-jewish spouses in population studies and thinking about mixed ancestry Jews in the context of multi-racial persons.

Within this Article

  • What’s Missing in the Measurement of Intermarriage
  • Considering Jewish Intermarriage in the American Context
  • Discussion
  • References

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