Jewish Out-Marriage: Mexico and Venezuela

This chapter deals with Jewish family developments in two Spanish speaking countries in Latin America. Mexico and Venezuela provide examples of Jewish populations generated by initially small international migration during the first half of the twentieth century, and subsequent growth through further immigration and natural increase. Around the year 2000, the Jewish population was estimated at about 40, 000 in Mexico, mostly concentrated in Mexico City, and 15, 000 to 18, 000 in Venezuela, mostly in Caracas. The time-series presented actually points to continuing increases in the frequency of out-marriage in Mexico, but at least until the early 1990s the levels observed were among the lowest in the Diaspora-both before and after accounting for the effects of conversions. Since the data relate to both the Jewish and the non-Jewish partners in out-married couples, their meaning is more an indication of the socio-demographic context of out-marriage than an actual measure of out-marriage frequency.