The B'nai B'rith magazine · 1927-07-01 · 10 (7.1927) · p. Seite 414

Intermarriage in Soviet Russia HE World War, the civil wars and the revolution not only uprooted the economic system of Russia but also brought about a radical change in the psychology of the Russian population. The war ploughed the soil and the revolution sowed new conceptions, new manners, new customs and a new morality. Naturally, the Jewish population has not escaped the current influences in Russia. Many things that before were impossible in Jewish life now have become daily occurrences and pass by almost unnoticed. Intermarriage, for instance. Before the revolution, intermarriage was the exclusive privilege of the assimilating intelligentsia in the large cities. In czaristic Russia, a mixed marriage almost meant baptism for the Jew. Marriage between a Jew and a Greek or Roman Catholic was forbidden by law. An event of this sort, therefore, was a rarity and invariably created a sensation in the Jewish community. Quite often, the person contracting a Gentile marriage was excluded from Jewish society. In the small provincial cities, the mixed marriage was hardly known. When, occasionally, a Jewish girl did marry a shaigetz, the whole community showed its disapproval by branding her family forever. Today, intermarriage is a daily occurrence in the small provincial towns as well as in the large cities. Here it is interesting to note a very striking tendency. In the big cities intermarriage is popular only among certain classes, the communists, the workers and those persons known as "nep men" who are without a tradition and without a definite place in society. In the smaller cities, on the other hand, the epidemic of intermarriage has swept over all classes of the population. The common folk as well as the elite have been affected. Another interesting tendency is that while the majority of mixed marriages in the large cities occur between Jewish young men and Christian girls, most of the matches in the small communities are between Jewish girls and gentile young men. Just as in olden By J.*Wendroff Illustrations by S. Raskin VANIA, times, every small Jew- SASHA ish community boasted of its outstanding sonsin-law, Aidemlach, (fine young men versed in Talmudic lore), it now has its respectable sons-in-law. The most remarkable thing, however, is the stoic indifference of the older generation to all these strange, unprecedented happenings. Let us take, for example, such a typical Jewish city as Slutzk, my birthplace. The thousand-year-old city of Slutzk has one of the oldest Jewish communities. From its pinkas (town record), it is seen that in the Seventeenth Century the Jewish congregation was one of the largest in Lithuania, and had its representative in the Vaad arba Ha'aratzos, a sort of Jewish parliament of the time. Slutzk has always been renowned for its Gaonim, its large Yeshivah, and its great rabbinical scholars and talmudists. The city was steadfast in its adherence to traditions. Even in later years when the children began to demand from their parents a secular education, traditional practices continued unimpaired. The young people entered the gymnasiums. Many parents secured concessions whereby their children were not compelled to write on the Sabbath. The gymnasium and university students, when at home during vacation, accompanied their parents to the synagogue, even though it was only for the sake of appearance. Naturally, the city had its share of disbelievers, Apikorsim, but no one attempted openly to show disregard for religion. Those who wanted to violate the Sabbath or eat on Yom Kippur had to do so secretly, not so much out of fear but AND MISHA rather because of courtesy and respect for others' beliefs. There were some liberties to which only certain persons were entitled. The privilege of riding on Sabbath, for instance, was granted only the Jewish physician. The pharmacist had the right to carry a cane on Sabbath and the teacher of the Russian Hebrew School was tolerated when he ate without a hat. There were a few liberal families in the city that permitted the playing of the piano on Saturday, invited Pritzim (rich gentile land owners) to their tables, and attended gentile clubs and dances. These were isolated cases. The general conduct of the population was along traditional lines. When, on one occasion, a respectable Jewish girl had a love affair with the minister's son, her entire family moved away from the city because of the disgrace. All this is of the past. Upon visiting my birth place after an absence of twenty-five years, I found there different types of sons-in-law, descendents of Esau, and no one seemed to pay any attention to them. You find the same conditions in hundreds of other places, large and small. The smallest Jewish settlement now has a couple of imported sons-in-law, not from the Yeshivas of Mir, or Wolozhin, but gentiles from the interior of Russia. And the people regard this state of affairs as a thing that has always been in vogue. 414