A few days ago, we had another thought-provoking discussion on intermarriage. Back in the days of Ketuvim and the Tanakh, intermarriage was a huge deal and strictly forbidden. Obviously, it is not as big of an issue in the modern world, but intermarriage continues to be a hot topic among Jews. In the same Nathan Englander story I mentioned in an earlier blog, a few of the characters discuss how intermarriage is the second Holocaust. I strongly disagree with this viewpoint for the sole reason that any comparison to the systematic slaughtering of twelve million people has to be pretty accurate, which this is not.

I feel personally connected to the issue of intermarriage, and I think that it is completely okay. My parents were both raised Jewish and have stayed Jewish for their entire lives (my dad is even a rabbi), but every one of their three combined Jewish siblings has married a non-Jew. Even in this case, two of them are still raising their children Jewish. I think that who a person marries should have nothing to do with either of their religion. If a Jew decides to marry someone not Jewish, that is their decision, and no one should be able to tell them they are wrong. Religion may be a deciding factor in some people's marriages, but those people should not be able to make the same decisions for other people.