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Share58% intermarriage
71% among non-Orthodox Jews
Much higher among young Jew
33% of children in intermarriages are raised as Jews. The percentage varies greatly by community, however. In Boston, for example, 60% of children of interfaith families are raised as Jews. In Baltimore, 62% of children of intermarriage are raised as Jews. Conversely, in Denver, only 18% are being raised Jewish.
(א) כִּ֤י יְבִֽיאֲךָ֙ יקוק אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּ֥ה בָא־שָׁ֖מָּה לְרִשְׁתָּ֑הּ וְנָשַׁ֣ל גּֽוֹיִם־רַבִּ֣ים ׀ מִפָּנֶ֡יךָ הַֽחִתִּי֩ וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁ֨י וְהָאֱמֹרִ֜י וְהַכְּנַעֲנִ֣י וְהַפְּרִזִּ֗י וְהַֽחִוִּי֙ וְהַיְבוּסִ֔י שִׁבְעָ֣ה גוֹיִ֔ם רַבִּ֥ים וַעֲצוּמִ֖ים מִמֶּֽךָּ׃ (ב) וּנְתָנָ֞ם יקוק אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ לְפָנֶ֖יךָ וְהִכִּיתָ֑ם הַחֲרֵ֤ם תַּחֲרִים֙ אֹתָ֔ם לֹא־תִכְרֹ֥ת לָהֶ֛ם בְּרִ֖ית וְלֹ֥א תְחָנֵּֽם׃ (ג) וְלֹ֥א תִתְחַתֵּ֖ן בָּ֑ם בִּתְּךָ֙ לֹא־תִתֵּ֣ן לִבְנ֔וֹ וּבִתּ֖וֹ לֹא־תִקַּ֥ח לִבְנֶֽךָ׃ (ד) כִּֽי־יָסִ֤יר אֶת־בִּנְךָ֙ מֵֽאַחֲרַ֔י וְעָבְד֖וּ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֑ים וְחָרָ֤ה אַף־יקוק בָּכֶ֔ם וְהִשְׁמִידְךָ֖ מַהֵֽר׃
When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are about to enter and possess, and He dislodges many nations before you -- the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations much larger than you -- and the Lord your God delivers them to you and you defeat them, you must doom them to destruction: grant them no terms and give them no quarter. You shall not intermarry with them: do not give your daughter to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your children away from Me to worship other gods, and the Lord’s anger will blaze forth against you and He will promptly wipe you out.
אמר רבא אטו התם משום קדושה ולאו קדושה הוא דלמא מוליד בן ואזיל פלח לעבודת כוכבים וה"מ בהיותן עובדי כוכבים כי מגיירי בישראל שרו
Rava, is the reason for the prohibition “do not intermarry with them” a matter of sanctity? Rather, it is out of fear that the intermarried couple will have a child whowill worship idolatry. This prohibition against intermarriage applies only againstnon-Jews, but if they convert, they are allowed for marriage.
הלכות איסורי ביאה פרק יב
א ישראל שבעל גויה משאר האומות, דרך אישות, או ישראלית שנבעלה לגוי, דרך אישות--הרי אלו לוקין מן התורה, שנאמר "לא תתחתן, בם" (דברים ז,ג): אחד שבעה עממין, ואחד כל האומות באיסור זה. וכן מפורש על ידי עזרא "ואשר לא ניתן בנותינו, לעמי הארץ; ואת בנותיהם, לא ניקח לבנינו" (נחמיה י,לא). [ב] ולא אסרה תורה, אלא דרך חתנות.
ב אבל הבא על הגויה דרך זנות--מכין אותו מכת מרדות מדברי סופרים, גזירה שמא יבוא להתחתן.
Maimonides, Laws of Prohibited Sexual Relations, 12:1-2
If a Jewish person sleeps with a non-Jew in the way of married people, they receive biblically ordained lashes, as it says “You shall not intermarry with them: do not give your daughter to their sons or take their daughters for your sons.” The same law is true concerning the seven nations of the land of Canaan and all other nations. This is also explained by Ezra, “We will not give our daughters in marriage to the peoples of the land, or take their daughters for our sons.” The Torah only forbade marriage, but one who sleeps with a non-Jew in a licentious manner gets rabbinically ordained lashes as a decree lest they come to get married.
(א) קֹדֶם מַתַּן תּוֹרָה הָיָה אָדָם פּוֹגֵעַ אִשָּׁה בַּשּׁוּק אִם רָצָה הוּא וְהִיא לִשָּׂא אוֹתָהּ מַכְנִיסָהּ לְתוֹךְ בֵּיתוֹ וּבוֹעֲלָהּ בֵּינוֹ לְבֵין עַצְמוֹ וְתִהְיֶה לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה. כֵּיוָן שֶׁנִּתְּנָה תּוֹרָה נִצְטַוּוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁאִם יִרְצֶה הָאִישׁ לִשָּׂא אִשָּׁה יִקְנֶה אוֹתָהּ תְּחִלָּה בִּפְנֵי עֵדִים וְאַחַר כָּךְ תִּהְיֶה לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברים כב-יג) "כִּי יִקַּח אִישׁ אִשָּׁה וּבָא אֵלֶיהָ":
(ב) וְלִקּוּחִין אֵלּוּ מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל תּוֹרָה הֵם. וּבְאֶחָד מִשְּׁלֹשָׁה דְּבָרִים אֵלּוּ הָאִשָּׁה נִקְנֵית. בְּכֶסֶף. אוֹ בִּשְׁטָר. אוֹ בְּבִיאָה. בְּבִיאָה וּבִשְׁטָר מֵהַתּוֹרָה. וּבְכֶסֶף מִדִּבְרֵי סוֹפְרִים. וְלִקּוּחִין אֵלּוּ הֵן הַנִּקְרָאִין קִדּוּשִׁין אוֹ אֵרוּסִין בְּכָל מָקוֹם. וְאִשָּׁה שֶׁנִּקְנֵית בְּאֶחָד מִשְּׁלֹשָׁה דְּבָרִים אֵלּוּ הִיא הַנִּקְרֵאת מְקֻדֶּשֶׁת אוֹ מְאֹרֶסֶת:
(1) Before the giving of the Torah, it would be that if a man happened upon a woman in the marketplace and they wanted to marry each other, he would bring her into his house and consummate the marriage between them privately, and she would be his wife. Once the Torah was given, Israel was commanded that if a man wanted to marry a woman, he would acquire her first through witnesses, and afterwards she would be his wife, as it says, "When a man takes a woman and sleeps with her..." (Deuteronomy 22:13).
(2) And taking a wife as such is a positive commandment of the Torah. And a woman is acquired through three means: money, a contract, or through intercourse. Marriage through intercourse and by contract is from the Torah, and by money is Rabbinical [lit. "the words of the Scribes"]. And this acquisition is what is called "Kiddushin [Sanctification]" or "Eirusin [Betrothal]" in several places. And a woman who is acquired through one of these three means is called a "Mekudeshet" or "Meureset".
Perhaps the reason for all of the intermarriage today is because of the trauma Jewish souls experience in the Shoah [The Holocaust]. Some were so traumatized from the awful things that happened that they refused to incarnate as Jews. That doesn't mean that their besherts [soulmates] aren't Jewish.
Far be it to judge Zimri of being guilty of adultery, for the Torah would not include a parsha devoted to adultury. There are ten levels of licentiousness. The first level is where one intentionally commits the sin, deliberately inviting the evil inclination upon himself. After that there are nine other levels, where with each progressive level man's power of free choice is taken from him a little more. Then on the tenth level we find a man whose level of morality is of the highest order, where he does all that is within his power to refrain from znut. And yet he still succumbs. On the tenth level, when his evil inclination overpowers him, his action is unquestionably the will of God. Such was the case with Yehuda and Tamar, for she was his true soulmate (as Rashi alludes to on the verse, "she is more righteous than I." Where God announced that He had determined the affair in order to bring the Davidic line through their offspring Peretz). This is also the case here, for Zimri was on the very highest level of guarding himself from giving in to his evil desires. Since it was impossible for him to remove himself from the action, he concluded that she was his true soulmate. Pinchas believed that the opposite was true, that Zimri still had the power of free choice and could have refrained from the sin
http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/news/2015-07-10/Torah/Is_Pinchas_a_warning_against_intermarriage.html
Rabbi Mordechai Yoseph Lanier of Izbica interprets our story and Pinchas’s brit shalom very differently. He quotes the Arizal as saying that the souls of Zimri and Kozbi were beshert (predestined partners). These star crossed lovers reincarnate generation after generation to try to build a life together. Previously, they came as Shechem and Dinah whose love for each other (as understood by Lanier) was intolerable to her brothers and led to a similar bloody end. Later, the souls are finally able to live together in peace when Rabbi Akiva marries the ex-wife of Turnus Rufus (who only after her wedding converts to Judaism). According to Rabbi Lanier, Pinchas’s reward of brit shalom was to understand that sometimes Jew and non-Jews can be beshert.
