Poll: American Jews accept intermarriage

NEW YORK — A majority of American Jews do not oppose marriages between Jews and non-Jews, a national survey by the American Jewish Committee has concluded.

Such interfaith marriages may account for as much as 50 percent of Jewish marriages in recent years, some estimates suggest, according to The New York Times.

Forty percent of respondents to the 2000 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion — a telephone survey of 1,010 Jews — said they were neutral about interfaith marriages, and 16 percent said such unions were positive.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said they did not agree with the statement, “If would pain me if my child married a gentile,” while an even greater number — 80 percent — said they agreed that “intermarriage is inevitable in an open society.”