TEE JEWS: RACE AND ENVIRONMENT 511 



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 mar- 

 riages between Jews and christian women. Besides the excessive fric- 

 tion incidental between married couples of different faith, even be- 

 tween 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, there- 

 fore, 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. 16 

 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. 



19 It will appear from the figures given above about divorces in Hungary 

 and Roumania that they are more frequent among the Jews than among the 

 christians in these countries. But it must be recalled that the christians can 

 not obtain divorces easily according to the civil laws of the country. The 

 Jews, however, are left to themselves in this respect, and they can easily obtain 

 divorces from the rabbis. 



