Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/515

Rh It has been stated that divorce is more apt to occur among mixed couples than among pure Jewish couples, and some statistics of the city of Berlin support this opinion. During the ten years, 1892 to 1902, to each 1,000 marriages there were divorces as follows: Jews, 3; christians, 3.91; Jews married to christian women, 10.09; christians married to Jewesses, 11.16. Mixed marriages are thus from three to four times more likely to be divorced than pure marriages. Marriages between christians and Jewesses are more often dissolved than marriages between Jews and christian women. Besides the excessive friction incidental between married couples of different faith, even between catholics married to protestants, it must be recalled that mixed marriages are taking place chiefly in large cities, where divorces are more common than in small towns and in the country. Besides, mixed marriages have lately been increasing, as was shown above, and divorces are more frequent among couples recently married than among those who have successfully passed several years of marital life. Statistics of divorce among mixed couples for a small number of years are, therefore, likely to be fallacious, and for a long period of years there are no available data.

With divorces the influence of the social environment is again evident. In the orient and eastern Europe, where the Jews live under strict adherence to their faith and traditions, participating but little in tendencies of modern life, the sacredness of the family ties is strictly guarded, and divorces are uncommon, although easily obtainable. In western Europe and America, where the Jews are completely under the influence of modern city life, divorces are frequent and are growing in frequency.