It is interesting that there are certain practices that are
generally taboo among Jews, regardless of the level of their
commitment to traditional Torah values. One of these pervasive
taboos is intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews. On occasion,
non-Jews have remarked to me that this attitude strikes them as
xenophobic. But – in truth – this is not an expression of
xenophobia. One of the factors that seem to underlie this
inhibition is the association between intermarriage and
assimilation. This association is so strong that the statistic
most often used to measure the rate of assimilation among Jews
is the intermarriage rate. The implied message is that
intermarriage and assimilation are somewhat synonymous. In other
words, this association is based on the premise that
intermarriage, almost inevitably, will lead to the assimilation
of the Jewish partner in the marriage. Is there a Torah basis
for this association? Maimonides explains that it is prohibited
for a Jew to have sexual relations with a non-Jew.