Re “The Power Of ‘Yes’ On Interfaith Officiation” (Opinion, March 31): I recently returned from Mexico City where I officiated at an interfaith wedding. The couple flew my wife and me down from Staten Island because they could not find a single rabbi in Mexico who would marry them.
The groom was raised Catholic and the bride was raised Jewish. They planned the wedding for after Shabbat and had kosher food available for their observant relatives. They plan on raising their children as Jews. I have seen the studies that prove that an intermarriage with a rabbi officiating leads to a Jewish household. The best way to deal with the over 50 percent intermarriage rate among Jews is to have rabbis involved. That generates a good feeling towards Judaism for the non-Jewish partner. Writing off interfaith couples will just hasten the decline and possibly disappearance of American Jewry.
Congregation OM ShalOM
Staten Island
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