The rate of intermarriage of Canadian Jews increased nearly 500 percent in the 30 years between 1928 and 1959 and “can be expected to increase” in the future, according to a study by the Canadian Jewish Congress research bureau. For a somewhat longer period–from 1921 to 1960–the rate increased more slowly at about 300 percent.
Louis Rosenberg, research director of the Congress, said the rate was likely to continue to increase because of the expected absence of any massive new Jewish immigration to counter the trend toward marriage outside the Jewish group.
According to the data, the years 1921-1960 showed a total of 63, 852 Jewish marriages, including 3,974 or 6.2 percent intermarriages. The rate of intermarriage among Jews in Canada rose from 3.4 percent in 1921 to 8.5 percent in 1960. In the 1928-1959 period, the rate grew from 1.9 percent to 8.9 percent.
The report said that the intermarriage rate became “almost the same among Jewish men as among Catholic and Protestant men in the period 1951-1960. It remains more than twice as high among Jewish men as among Jewish women.”
During the period 1921-1960, a total of 1, 799 Canadian Jewish women married 1, 208 Protestants, 296 Roman Catholics, 45 Greek Catholics, four of Oriental religions, 38 of “no religion” and eight of unspecified religion. During the same period, 3,974 Jewish men in Canada married 2,719 Protestant women, 1,144 Roman Catholics, 53 Greek Catholics, one of Oriental religion, 32 of “no religion” and 25 of unspecified religion.”
INTERMARRIAGE IS LOWEST IN QUEBEC; HIGHER IN ONTARIO AND MANITOBA
The data indicated that the inter marriage rate of Canadian Jews varied throughout areas of Jewish population. “It is lowest in the province of Quebec, where there is comparatively little social contact between the French-speaking Catholic majority, the English-speaking English minority and the still smaller Jewish minority,” the report stated. “It is higher in Ontario and Manitoba and still higher in British Colombia, the prairie provinces and the Atlantic provinces.”
In general, the report found, the larger the Jewish community and the more developed its religious, educational and recreational facilities, the lower the rate of intermarriage, and conversely, the smaller and more isolated “a Jewish community is from other and large Jewish communities, the higher is its rate of intermarriage.”
The report said the bonds with the religious traditions and folkways of the Jewish settlers who came to Canada in the period of 1881 to 1931 were still strong but the increase in the rate of marriages outside the group “indicates that these bonds are weakening and that the Canadian Jewish community is facing the same problems of adaptation as the Jewish communities in the other English-speaking countries.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
