From the Director

This week we released two reports that focus on understanding intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews in the United States. In an op-ed I wrote for the Jerusalem Post, I discussed our latest study findings and emphasized the potential ways to foster Jewish engagement among intermarried couples in the United States.  Continue reading

Beyond Welcoming: Engaging Intermarried Couples in Jewish Life

Michelle Shain, Leonard Saxe, Fern Chertok, Graham Wright, Shahar Hecht, and Theodore Sasson

"Beyond Welcoming" is the first large-scale study of the marriages and committed relationships of Gen X and millennial Jews, and the first to systematically collect data from non-Jewish partners about their backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. The study was designed with the goal of understanding which programs and policy initiatives would best serve the Jewish community in an era where intermarriage is pervasive and young adults in the United States are distancing themselves from religion and religious institutions.  Learn more . 

We'll Cross That Bridge When We Come To It:  Life Stages and the Needs of Interfaith Couples in Greater Boston

Fern Chertok, Matthew A. Brookner, and Rachel Minkin

This qualitative study describes some of the experiences and perspectives of the burgeoning population of interfaith couples in the Greater Boston community and focuses in particular on households with little involvement in home-based or communal Jewish life.  Learn more . 

Is Intermarriage Really the Demise Of Jews in America?

Leonard Saxe, Jerusalem Post, August 7, 2019

In a recent cabinet meeting, Education Minister Rafi Peretz likened intermarriage in America to "a second Holocaust." His comment is both odious and ill-informed. Not only does it dishonor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and denigrate those who marry non-Jews, it is a distortion of the actual facts.   Read more.



The Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University is a multi-disciplinary research center dedicated to bringing the concepts, theories, and techniques of social science to bear on the study of contemporary Jewish life.