The rate of inter-marriage among Jews in Canada has been increasing almost continuously since 1926, according to a survey made by Louis Rosenberg, Canadian-Jewish economist, who heads the Research and Statistical Bureau of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
The survey, which covers the past 27 years, shows that in 1926, the first year for which complete official statistics of inter-marriage for the whole of Canada were compiled, there were 53 cases in which persons professing the Jewish faith married non-Jews. In the same year the number of marriages in which both bride and groom were Jewish was 1,087.
In 1942, the most recent year for which official statistics are available, the number of inter-marriages among Jews in Canada had increased more than four-fold to 226, while the number of marriages in which both bride and groom were Jewish in 1942 was 2,100, an increase only slightly more than two-fold.
Of the 1,706 cases of Jewish inter-marriage which have been recorded officially in Canada during the period from 1926-1942 inclusive, 1,175 have been with Protestants of various denominations 440 with Roman Catholics, one with a bridegroom professing an “oriental religion,” 14 with persons claiming to be of no religion, and 5 with persons who did not state their religion.
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