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Over the last century, American Jews married outside their religion at increasing rates. By closely examining the intersection of intermarriage and gender across the twentieth century, in her new book, Keren R. McGinity describes the lives of Jewish women who intermarried while placing their decisions in historical context. The first comprehensive history of these intermarried women, Still Jewish (StillJewish.com) is a multi-generational study combining in-depth personal interviews and an astute analysis of how interfaith relationships and intermarriage were portrayed in the mass media, advice manuals, and religious community-generated literature.
Still Jewish dismantles assumptions that once a Jew intermarries, she becomes fully assimilated into the majority Christian population, religion, and culture. Rather than becoming “lost” to the Jewish community, women who intermarried later in the century were more likely to raise their children with strong ties to Judaism than women who intermarried earlier in the century. Bringing perennially controversial questions of identity, continuity, and survival to the forefront of the discussion, Still Jewish addresses topics of great resonance in a diverse America.
Keren R. McGinity, the Mandell L. Berman Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Contemporary American Jewish Life at the University of Michigan's Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, will speak about her hot-off-the press book this weekend.
EVENT: “Family Affairs: Intermarriage and Jewish Parents in Historical Perspective”
WHEN: Sunday, February 8, 2009 2:00 PM.
WHERE: Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Drive, Ann Arbor, MI.
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judaicstudies[.]umich.edu / kunoff[.]umich.edu 
