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Many of my fellow Jews today are fearful that interfaith marriages between Jews and non-Jews will dilute and adulterate our racial purity. It is true that at least half of all Jews in America marry outside the faith and that most of their children are not brought up to be Jewish. But this phenomenon is not new. Intermarriage began in early Biblical times. Esau married two Hittite women; Moses and Joseph also married non-Jews. Of course, Solomon had harems of heathens. Even in the Middle Ages, when it is assumed that the Jews who married exclusively within the faith were racially homogeneous, there is evidence that a large proportion of the Ashkenazic Jews descended from an ancient Asiatic pagan nation, the Khazars, who had converted to Judaism in the 13th century.

Despite the fact that there is no such thing as a true-blue Jewish identity, I was brought up to believe that I would be cursed if I even talked to non-Jewish girls. Such fraternization was a catastrophic temptation: I might eventually marry a "heathen" and thus betray my heritage. My mother would frequently and fervently warn me about the horrors that befell my family when one of my uncles married a non-Jew. My grandmother was so shamed and outraged at this abominable union that she had a stroke that paralyzed one side of her face. And my uncle soon suffered as well: he got TB from his wife (she soon died from it). Although in theory I agreed with my mother's prejudice, I was fascinated with Christian girls in grammar school. Once I even let two of my favorites visit me in the back yard. When my mother found out, she beat me with her trusty strap and threatened to disown me if I continued to flirt with any Christian girl. I obeyed her command until the seventh grade. At the weekly dances in junior high, I exclusively danced with a non-Jew, the most popular girl in the school. God knows how, but my mother found out about my apostasy and put an end to it, grounding me for the remainder of the year.
 

In high school, I was too busy studying to have any time for any girls. But my mother still wanted to reinforce my backbone. When my mother discovered that the wife of the Jewish man next door had recently converted to Judaism, she reminded me that no matter how many Sabbath candles that woman lit on Friday nights, she would never really be a Jew. And any children that couple had would be misbegotten mongrels. Brainwashed by my mother, I dated only Jews during college. In fact, I got engaged to a fanatically orthodox young lady whom I thought would redeem me, once and for all, from backsliding. But she, soon figuring out that I was not fundamentalist enough for her, broke off the engagement. I quickly rebounded and started to date non-Jews with a vengeance. Eventually, I married one. My mother uncharacteristically accepted my decision and in fact was gracious to my wife. My father, on the other hand, had some deep-seated concerns: when he was drunk at my brother's wedding, he tearfully implored me to make sure that any children we had were raised Jewish. My wife and I exposed our two children to both Presbyterianism and Judaism. My son has chosen to be Jewish; my daughter, after being first baptized and then bat-mitzvahed, has decided to be a Christian.

My Jewish bloodline has turned out to be quite a mixture. It is a microcosm of what has been periodically happening to Judaism (and Christianity and Islam) for centuries. And it proves that whether we call ourselves Jew or Christian or Muslim, we are all children of Abraham.

 Amen