Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/451

Rh In Berlin the proportion of mixed marriages is about twice as large as in Prussia generally. During 1875-9 the average annual number was 101; during 1895-9 it was double, 201; during 18981902, 212, and in 1901 it rose to 246. During the last mentioned year 24 per cent, of all the Jews who married married christian women, and 15.1 of the Jewesses married christians. In other words, every fourth Jew and every seventh Jewess in Berlin who married during 1904 married a christian.

In the other provinces of Germany mixed marriages are also more or less frequent. The record for Hamburg is, during 1896 to 1900, that 5 per cent, of Jewesses and 8.3 per cent, of Jews marry outside of their faith. In Bavaria during the twenty-five years, 1876-1900, it was found that to every 100 pure Jewish marriages contracted, 5.35 were contracted between Jews and christians. That these marriages are on the increase is shown in the table on page 446. The percentage was 3.87 in 1876-80 and 9.0 in 1904. Similarly in Hesse, where in 1866-70 only one in 200 Jews who married, married a christian, mixed marriages have since been on the increase, so that during 1901-4 the mixed marriages amounted to 7.33 per cent, of the pure Jewish marriages. Even in Amsterdam, where the most orthodox Jews are living, and up to about fifty years ago, hardly any Jew married out of his faith, there are to-day a very large number of such unions. During 1899-1901 the mixed marriages constituted 9.45 per cent, and during 1902-3 the proportion increased to 15.08 per cent.

The largest percentage of mixed marriages are contracted in Copenhagen, Denmark, where statistics, recently compiled by Julius Salomon, show that during the twenty-four years, 1880 to 1903, there were contracted 358 pure Jewish marriages and 234 mixed marriages, or 65.36 per cent, of the pure Jewish marriages. How far these marriages are^ in that city, in vogue among the Jews is seen by the fact that from 1880 to 1890 the percentage was only 55.17; it rose to 71.03 per cent, during 1891 to 1900, and from 1901 to 1903 it was already 89.74 per cent. In former years we are told that the Jewish rabbis refused to admit children born from mixed marriages to Judaism, but of late years the Jewish community in that city authorized several Jewish physicians to circumcize such new-born boys. This is not confined to Copenhagen alone, but is characteristic of Scandinavia in general. In Denmark there were contracted, during 1873-91, 308 Jewish marriages, of which 187 were pure and 121 mixed, i. e., 64.71 per cent. Since then the increase has been enormous. In the neighboring country, Sweden, it is stated that the number of mixed marriages is much in excess of the number of pure Jewish marriages.