Social Justice Research Project
Source Review 1 Final Draft
The article “Religious homogamy, marital conflict, and stability in same‐faith and interfaith Jewish marriages” by Chinitz and Brown is a peer-reviewed academic journal article published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. It compares same-faith and interfaith marriages. It suggests that shared values play a significant role. The study investigates both same-faith and interfaith Jewish marriages to determine if religious differences contribute to conflict and instability.
The study included a sample of 155 adult children born to interfaith couples and same-faith couples. They were each asked about their parents’ religious beliefs and marriage stability. The couples’ children were asked to receive an unbiased, outside perspective. Each person was asked 33 questions to assess how different or similar their parents’ religious beliefs were from one another. To create the questions for their experiment, Chinitz and Brown interviewed a Conservative rabbi, a Reform rabbi, a Catholic priest, and a Protestant minister to ensure the questions were relevant. One question was, “How does your mother/father feel about their child having a Bar Mitzvah?” and another was, “How does your mother/father feel about celebrating Jewish holidays such as Passover and Hanukkah?”. Each person would answer on a scale from one to seven. Seven being strongly in favor and one being strongly not in favor. A second test was then given to determine the marital stability of their parents. Questions included “While I was growing up and even now, my parents argue a lot when I am around.” and “There is a lot of emotional distance and coldness between my parents.” These questions were also measured from one to seven to calculate scores.
As predicted, the results suggest that Jewish couples (same-faith) have fewer conflicts than interfaith marriages and have more stability. Specifically, Jewish religious issues disagreements were more common than disagreements on Christian religious issues. Many arguments come from disagreeing over how to raise children properly. For example, a Jewish father may want to send their children to Hebrew school and have them Bar Mitzvahed, while the mother disagrees and believes the children should be raised Christian. Another example is following Jewish practices. This includes celebrating holidays, going to synagogue, and eating Kosher food. The article suggests that having a same-faith marriage eliminates such problems and results in less tension.
Children of interfaith marriage often have problems. Some children may feel pressure to choose one parent’s faith over the other, while others may grow up without a strong attachment to either religion. They can face much confusion as well. For example, if a Jewish parent wants their children to eat Kosher, while the other parent, who is Christian disagrees, the child is placed in a very difficult position and may be unsure which parent to listen to. Also, this can lead to anxiety or depression for the kids, depending on the severity of the situation. Growing up with all of this tension at home can have negative impacts and consequences on mental health. Overall, marital conflicts affect both the couple and their children.
The authors used different research studies to conduct their experiment such as from Heaton and Pratt (1990) and Glenn (1982), which similarly tested interfaith marriage stability but focused more on Christianity. Also, they included results from Gleckman and Streicher (1990) and Lehrer and Chiswick (1993,) who studied divorce rates among Jewish interfaith couples. Another previous study that was used was Lazerwitz (1981) which claimed that divorce is more likely among interfaith couples. The difference between those past experiments and Brown and Chinitz’s was that their experiment focused on specific religious disagreements.
This source is interesting to me because it relates to my personal life. My Jewish uncle is married to his Catholic wife. They have two young children. They often disagree on which holidays to celebrate and what traditions their children should follow. My uncle wanted his children to go to a Jewish private school, but my aunt disagreed, and now, they attend a private Catholic school. This directly relates to the source’s findings that interfaith marriages have more conflicts. If they were both Catholic/both Jewish, there would be less to argue about. They could potentially still have arguments but fewer with shared values. This source helps me acknowledge and understand interfaith couples’ challenges and shows how being part of the same religion can cause more stability.
This source is important to our project because it provides a detailed look at how religious differences impact marital stability, particularly in Jewish-Christian marriages. It helps prove that many religious disagreements, such as how to raise children, celebrate certain holidays, and keep traditions, are key factors in marital conflict. This helps me understand the challenges of interfaith couples and provides insight into how shared values, religious practices, and traditions influence marriage health.
Chinitz, Joshua G., and Robert A. Brown. “Religious Homogamy, Marital Conflict, and Stability in Same-Faith and Interfaith Jewish Marriages.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 40, no. 4 (2001): 723-733. https://doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00087.
Source Review 1 Initial Draft
The article “Religious homogamy, marital conflict, and stability in same‐faith and interfaith Jewish marriages” by Chinitz and Brown is a peer-reviewed academic journal article published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. It compares same-faith and interfaith marriages. It suggests that shared values play a significant role. The study investigates both same-faith and interfaith Jewish marriages to determine if religious differences contribute to conflict and instability. The study included a sample of 155 adult children born to interfaith couples and same-faith couples. They were each asked about their parents’ religious beliefs and marriage stability. The couples’ children were asked to receive an unbiased, outside perspective. Each person was asked 33 questions to assess how different or similar their parents’ religious beliefs were from one another. One question was, “How does your mother/father feel about their child having a Bar Mitzvah?” and another was, “How does your mother/father feel about celebrating Jewish holidays such as Passover and Hanukkah?”. Each person would answer on a scale from one to seven. Seven being strongly in favor and one being strongly not in favor. A second test was then given to determine the marital stability of their parents. Questions included “While I was growing up and even now, my parents argue a lot when I am around.” and “There is a lot of emotional distance and coldness between my parents.” These questions were also measured from one to seven to calculate scores.
As predicted, the results suggest that Jewish couples (same-faith) have fewer conflicts than interfaith marriages and have more stability. Many arguments come from disagreeing over how to raise children properly. For example, a Jewish father may want to send their children to Hebrew school and have them Bar Mitzvahed, while the mother disagrees and believes the children should be raised Christian. Another example is following Jewish practices. This includes celebrating holidays, going to synagogue, and eating Kosher food. The article suggests that having a same-faith marriage eliminates such problems and results in less tension.
However, this study has its weaknesses. The children may not have been able to capture every detail of their parents’ marriage or witness every disagreement. Also, many children’s views may be based on memory, which can be inaccurate and lead to incorrect results. For example, the child may have forgotten important details or small arguments. Also, it is common for many children to subconsciously forget traumatic events. On the other hand, some children may only remember significant traumatic events and forget smaller, daily disagreements. While the experiment provided helpful data, it is possible that some information was biased.
This source is important to our project because it provides a detailed look at how religious differences impact marital stability, particularly in Jewish-Christian marriages. It helps prove that many religious disagreements, such as how to raise children, celebrate certain holidays, and keep traditions, are key factors in marital conflict. This helps me understand the challenges of interfaith couples and provides insight into how shared values, religious practices, and traditions influence marriage health.
The authors used different research studies to conduct their experiment such as from Heaton and Pratt (1990) and Glenn (1982), which similarly tested interfaith marriage stability but focused more on Christianity. Also, they included results from Gleckman and Streicher (1990) and Lehrer and Chiswick (1993,) who studied divorce rates among Jewish interfaith couples. The difference between those past experiments and Brown and Chinitz’s was that their experiment focused on specific religious disagreements. To create the questions for their experiment, Chinitz and Brown interviewed a Conservative rabbi, a Reform rabbi, a Catholic priest, and a Protestant minister to ensure the questions were relevant.
This source is interesting to me because it relates to my personal life. My Jewish uncle is married to his Catholic wife. They have two young children. They often disagree on which holidays to celebrate and what traditions their children should follow. My uncle wanted his children to go to a Jewish private school, but my aunt disagreed, and now, they attend a private Catholic school. This directly relates to the source’s findings that interfaith marriages have more conflicts. If they were both Catholic/both Jewish, there would be less to argue about. They could potentially still have arguments but fewer with shared values. This source helps me acknowledge and understand interfaith couples’ challenges and shows how being part of the same religion can cause more stability.
Chinitz, Joshua G., and Robert A. Brown. “Religious Homogamy, Marital Conflict, and Stability in Same-Faith and Interfaith Jewish Marriages.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 40, no. 4 (2001): 723-733. https://doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00087.
Source Review 2 Initial Draft
The documentary Leaps of Faiths is a popular source that focuses on the real lives of interfaith Jewish-Christian couples over thirty years in Chicago. The documentary is for a general audience and is also directed at interfaith couples. This film uses real life experiences to tell its story, which makes it easier to connect with the audience. The documentary uses interviews as its main source. The Jewish-Catholic couples and their families discuss major life events and decisions, such as Bar mitzvahs, baptisms, weddings, schooling, and daily struggles, showing what it’s like to raise kids in a household where two different religions are present.
A huge struggle demonstrated in the film is what to do when a child is born. One parent wants to baptize the child while the other wants a bris. Parents also have a tough time deciding on education. For example, a family in the documentary talks about the difficulties and pressures they felt when deciding whether to send their child to a Hebrew or a Christian school. Some send their kids to Hebrew school, others to Catholic Sunday school, and a few try to do both. One mom says she was scared her kids would get confused by learning two different religions, but she didn’t want to choose only one and leave the other parent out. When households have different faiths, there is often more tension and pressure, which can potentially be avoided by marrying within the faith.
Leaps of Faiths shows that love may bring interfaith couples together, but raising children in a household with two religions can be very challenging. The documentary shows that the largest struggles begin after the children are born, and they must choose which traditions to pass on. For example, in one scene, a Jewish mother discusses her concern that raising her kids with both faiths might lead them to “lose” their Jewish identity, while the father, who is Catholic, is concerned about his side of the family feeling like outsiders. Different beliefs about what’s best for their children can lead to stress and arguments.. Some couples try to raise their kids in both religions, which causes the child to be confused about their identity. Others try to pick one faith, which often causes anger or a sense of loss for the parent whose religion was not chosen.
The documentary also interviewed the children and discussed how growing up with two religions shaped their identity. One girl says she never felt like she fully belonged to either community. Another mentions how uncomfortable it was to have both a bat mitzvah and a First Communion. She describes how she felt split between two people. Another interview with a child who grew up celebrating both Hanukkah and Christmas shows how she felt confused. Similarly, another child who attended Hebrew and Sunday school felt overwhelmed and confused about what to believe due to different teachings. Leaps of Faiths shows how growing up in interfaith households causes confusion and feelings of being out of place.
This source is very interesting to me because it’s a glimpse of reality. They aren’t actors or made-up stories. They’re real people trying to figure their lives out. Watching their stories made me feel connected to their struggles because I have family members going through the same challenges as the children in the documentary. My cousins are stuck between celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah every year at home, which is very confusing for them. They are very young, but I always acknowledged their struggles.
Parents struggle with important decisions like whether to baptize their child or have a bris, or to send them to Hebrew school or Sunday school. These choices can lead to arguments, confusion for the children, and pressure from other family members who want the kids raised in their religion. The documentary shows that these conflicts are real and emotionally challenging, and struggles might be avoided if both parents shared the same faith.
Leaps of Faiths. Directed by David Kovacs and Steve Ordower, performances by Chava Bahle and others, Omnibus Entertainment, 2019.
Brainstorming Project Topics
- Mikvah, converting to Judaism
- Israel
- Relationships of Jews and non Jews
These few topics represent key aspects of Jeiwsh kidentify, religious pratice, and culture. “Mikvah and converting to Judaism” represents how people can join the Jewish faith and begin to practice the religion. A mikvah is a bath used to purify someone and is often used before getting married. It is used to purify and cleanse your soul. “Israel” is the homeland of the Jewish people and is home to to much of Jewish culture and history. “Relationships of Jews and non Jews” represents how Jews and non Jews interact. These topics help us understand the signifiance of Judaism and how they tie into our daily lives.
