One of the main reasons, Riley finds, is that the older people get, the more likely they are to intermarry — and Jews tend to marry older than Americans generally, according to the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey.

By the same token, Mormons, who encourage early nuptials, are the least likely faith to outmarry.

I am involved in a relationship with a Catholic girl who I love spending time with.

She had introduced me to her family and they like me and let me come to their house.

Married to a Jew, you will be barred from certain circles.Consequently our marriage was not the hasty, impassioned leap of two people soaring on the Icarian wings of a first love.That which was between us was calm as the night, deep as the sea; in the light of it we both knew that forever afterwards he would look upon other women, and I upon other men, as pale wraiths.The findings in Riley’s book, for which she commissioned a national study, raise the question of whether Jewish institutions interested in reducing interfaith marriages should be encouraging Jews to marry at a younger age.They aren’t doing that now, according to Riley, and the American Jewish intermarriage rate is about 50 percent.