Beyond Chrismukkah - by Samira K Mehta (Paperback)

About the Book

"Drawing on historical research, ethnography, and original interviews, Beyond Chrismukkah describes and analyzes how interfaith Christian-Jewish families were understood, viewed, and treated in the larger American social milieu from 1965 through the present. [Mehta] shows how during the latter half of the twentieth century, interfaith marriage was subject to much the same dynamic and dramatic change that took place generally in American culture: from 1965 to 2010, the rate of intermarriage for American Jews rose from less than 10% to its current rate of between 40-50%. She argues that the understanding of ethnicity, and, in particular, the turn to multiculturalism in the 1990s, generated significant cultural and political change over time."--

Book Synopsis

The rate of interfaith marriage in the United States has risen so radically since the sixties that it is difficult to recall how taboo the practice once was. How is this development understood and regarded by Americans generally, and what does it tell us about the nation's religious life? Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Samira K. Mehta provides a fascinating analysis of wives, husbands, children, and their extended families in interfaith homes; religious leaders; and the social and cultural milieu surrounding mixed marriages among Jews, Catholics, and Protestants.

Mehta's eye-opening look at the portrayal of interfaith families across American culture since the mid-twentieth century ranges from popular TV shows, holiday cards, and humorous guides to "Chrismukkah" to children's books, young adult fiction, and religious and secular advice manuals. Mehta argues that the emergence of multiculturalism helped generate new terms by which interfaith families felt empowered to shape their lived religious practices in ways and degrees previously unknown. They began to intertwine their religious identities without compromising their social standing. This rich portrait of families living diverse religions together at home advances the understanding of how religion functions in American society today.

Review Quotes

"An engaging oeuvre whose greatest appeal lies in that it makes a convincing, empirically rooted argument whose conceptual building blocks are adaptable beyond its Christian-Jewish, American context making it broadly relevant."--eSS Review

"A book that all interfaith families, and those who love us, and those who study us, will need to read." -- Being Both

"A dynamic and illuminating introduction to this new reality."--Reading Religion

"A must read for everyone who wants to understand the dynamics of Christian-Jewish families in an increasingly multicultural American landscape, especially the children of interfaith families, the 'bridge builders' who hold the future in their hands." -- H-Net

"Thorough and impressive. . . . Mehta's expansive book will be enlightening for academics interested in the subject of marriage in relation to religion and interfaith dialogue, particularly Jewish-Protestant and Jewish-Catholic dialogue." -- Publishers Weekly