sentences:  In "Assimilation in American Life", Milton Gordon defined assimilation as a continuum, with the first stage acculturation, that is, the adoption of such outward cultural forms of the larger society as language, dress, recreational tastes, and political views.Total assimilation is possible only if the host society is receptive and extensive interfaith marriage takes place (at its most in former European colonies with a divisive black-white line, which allowed Jews to be seen as part of the desirable white element and where miscegenation was hardly a taboo).Most European and American Jews acculturated, but they rarely lost their sense of Jewish identity.