Beyond Chrismukkah

March 26, 2018
Mehta explores how interfaith marriages between Christians and Jews help illuminate “the ways in which Americans navigate the meanings of ‘religion’ and ‘culture’ in their daily lives” in her comprehensive debut. Mehta begins with a 1988 legal case that established the limits of “religious expression” that a divorced parent could show to their children if those children were raised in a different religion. Mehta traces back from this point to explain how interfaith marriage had rapidly changed in the postwar era. Her analysis is thorough and impressive, dipping into how interfaith families navigate holidays and dissecting representations of interfaith marriage within popular culture (her analysis of the reception of the 1972 TV show Bridget Loves Bernie is particularly revealing). Mehta’s exploration of how religions are passed down from generation to generation will help readers understand how recent decreases in religious devotion and increased secularism in America has shifted social norms around marriage. However, stories of actual interfaith couples are largely absent (save a brief use of case studies near the end), which seems like a glaring omission. 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.

April 1, 2018

Chrismukkah, the blending of Hanukkah and Christmas into a consumerist eight-day gift fest, is the perfect metaphor for this study on American interfaith beliefs and practices. Through seven years of ethnography and historical research, Mehta finds that 50 percent of American marriages are identified as interfaith. She asks if such religious distinctions pertain anymore and if so, what do they look like, and if not, why? The author contains her study to Jewish Christian (Catholic and Protestant) heterosexual marriages since Jews have a high incidence (40-50 percent) of intermarriage, and according to her research, this dynamic represents the archetypal image of mixed marriage in America. What she discovers is that interfaith families represent a hybrid of cultural norms and religious practice in which distinctions are often muddled; the core values and practices established not by public worship spaces but within the family setting. VERDICT Although the tone is academic in structure, the writing remains both accessible and thought provoking. A worthy conversation for all readers.--Sandra Collins, Byzantine Catholic Seminary Lib., Pittsburgh

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