The 52 Percent Statistics: Thoughts on Jewish Intermarriage in America

Few single pieces of information ever received greater attention within the US Jewish community than the notorious – if perhaps now half forgotten – 52% statistics. This was the rate of intermarriage among US Jews between 1985 and 1990, as estimated by the 1990 NJPS. Focusing on one particular number, without fully understanding the more complex context and set of processes which that figure selectively revealed, could lead to sweeping and possibly inaccurate conclusions, or even to fatalistic resignation. This chapter expands the discussion about the context of intermarriage in the US, in the framework of a broader discussion of the concept of assimilation. Systematic analysis of this emblematic facet of the contemporary American Jewish experience carries significant implications of general research import. It also offers, if somewhat indirectly, important indications for the possible development of Jewish community policies. The discussion in this chapter reviews major theories of assimilation in the body of American society, it examines the unique impact of American civilization and social structure on Jewish ethnoreligious identification, and calls attention to the main Jewish policy challenges emerging from intermarriage trends. These deliberations, if carried out in a constructive spirit, may enhance the ways and means American Jews will choose to preserve and improve their chances for continuity.