The Challenges Of Jewish Interfaith Marriage

By Jerry Baker


Nowadays there is rapid growth in the rate of intermarriages among the people belonging to a different religion. Many people fall in love with one another and fall for each other such that they do not consider some factors that may hinder them. However, marriage between different faiths is legal and it is practiced in California. Despite the fact that these occasions do happen, there are many challenges facing the Jewish interfaith marriage.

Most people do have that emotional feeling that they have abandoned their people and join strangers. This always occurs especially when the in-laws are against the intermarriage but the couple wants to be together. Conflict and bitterness arise as the two misunderstands one another. These may bring about long lasting damages and consequences to these relationships.

One partner is usually treated unfairly since the marriage will involve one person leaving his faith and ends up joining another religion. There comes a time when reality strikes the members of his family that their child will no longer be worshiping from the same belief as he and here a problem arises. The partner will have many difficulties coping up with the other faith.

Since the social and economic relationships differ from one place to another, the newly wedded will face a challenge with this more so if they married from different countries. The patterns can be affected by the change in upward mobility frequently in the education sector of the place they were born. That will bring a lot of problem to the couple when settling down in that particular region all over their lifetime.

At the initial stages of this relationships between the two partners, they may lack support from their friend or even family members because of the differences in the way of worship. That becomes a problem when the couple is married, and there arises an issue where the two do not trust each other anymore. The bond between the two becomes weaker with time which poses a major problem that will affect the partners for a long time.

Also, they have challenges understanding each other since their religion differ. Most people are always controlled by the laws and the rules of their religions. The case that the rules differ from one religion to another may bring about the issues where they cannot understand each other well just because one is not used to the regulations of other religions.

There are some situations which are inevitable in the life of these partners. The problem of religious belief sometimes may become irresolvable, many people cannot think outside what they have been taught from the time they were born hence they cannot be patient waiting for what they are not used to in life. Some may also face a challenge in accepting the difference between them and hence they forget about the love they had for one another.

The main challenge comes when the two have children. This will become a problem, especially when handing the beliefs down to the children. They will be conflicts on which religion should the children follow and what will guide them through their life.




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