ABSTRACT
We must understand that intermixture and intermarriage normally take place when different groups and peoples live side by side for any length of time. Judging from the precedents throughout history, this is the expected occurrence. Persons born as Jews have intermarried for one reason or another during the course of Jewish history, either drawing Gentiles into their fold or being drawn into the Gentile fold. But this was intermarriage in a wider sense, involving conversion, and meaning an intermixture of ethnic strains. More than any other place in history, the American scene has been one of fluidity and permissiveness from the start along the moving frontier, and it has been one of accelerated mobility ever since the coming of industry and the development of communications. According to Stanley Bigman, 13.1% of all marriages involving Jews in Washington, D.C. were out-marriages; but, in the nature of the matter, the Bigman figures mark lower limits only.
