Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/513

Rh also not as difficult for him to be baptized, because he considers himself as much of christian as of Jewish origin. It is Ruppin's opinion that hardly 10 per cent, of the children resulting from mixed marriages remain Jews for any considerable length of time. Of these it is doubtful whether any Jews are left after two or three generations.

"The loss sustained by Judaism through mixed marriages," says Ruppin, "is not to be considered a negligible quantity. In 1901, after five years of legalized intermarriage in Hungary, the proportion of children born to mixed parents was 1.23 per cent, of the total number of Jewish births; in Prussia, after twenty-five years of mixed marriages, it was 10.47 per cent., and in Berlin even 15.15 per cent, of all the Jewish births were of mixed origin. Between 1875 and 1902 14,536 children were born in Prussia from mixed marriages." In fact, Ruppin points out that the loss is much greater than through baptism, which is very much in vogue in Prussia. He shows that in Prussia only about 400 Jews are converted annually to Christianity, as against 700 children of half-Jewish blood becoming christians. Only about 25 christians are annually converted to Judaism and 75 children of half-Jewish blood are gained by Judaism through intermarriage. In this connection it is of interest to mention the numerous christian missions to the Jews, which are mostly kept up on the moneys contributed by English-speaking people. It is well known that they meet with but little, if any, success. Their expense is enormous. According to Dr. Kohler, the Berlin Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews spent more than 117,152 Reichsthaler upon the conversion of 461 Jews during the fifty years of its existence, while the London Society paid between the years 1863 and 1894 from £600 to £3,000 for the conversion of a single Jew. It appears from the figures given above that intermarriage brings much better results for the promotion of Christianity among the Jews than missions with their 'costly converts,' who only rarely prove to be desirable acquisitions to Christianity.

There are but few data about the frequency of divorce among the Jews. In eastern Europe and the orient, the rabbinical law of divorce prevails among the Jewish inhabitants, and any trivial cause often suffices before some rabbis to grant a divorce. The husband can even send a divorce to his wife by proxy through a messenger. Divorces, while not uncommon, considering the ease with which they can be obtained, are not very frequent. Family ties are very strong among the eastern European Jews and only rarely is advantage taken of the rabbinical law to dissolve marriage. The western European Jews do