A case of Mixed Religion Marriage cs en analysis of the cultural challenges and potential conflicts arising from a marriage between fully and partially Jewish families

A Case of Mixed Religion Marriage - CS EN
Analysis of the cultural challenges and potential conflicts arising from a marriage between fully and partially Jewish families.

1. Concrete inter-religious conflict
I will describe a case of an inter-religious married couple, a situation I know very well as they are close relatives of mine, and I have observed since I was a little girl. As the years passed by, I have been able to understand through different nuances the diverse circumstances of such a complex situation, in special after all the religious inputs and clarifications learnt through this module.
The members of this inter-religious marriage are a young Mexican couple, Teresa and Jorge:
Teresa was already born into an inter-religious to, her father is of Jewish origin and once baptised and converted to Catholicism, then he went back again to his original religion as a seriously active Jewish, and her mother coming from a typical Mexican Catholic family. From childhood to adolescence Teresa was a very religious Catholic girl, and then she converted to the Jewish faith before marrying Jorge.
On the other hand, Jorge comes from a well known third generation of a Jewish family both father and mother. Firstly, in contrast with Teresa, his environment has always been a clear Jewish basis, that is to say, that he has always lived in a strong system of Jewish values with no doubts to convert into another religion. Secondly and important to mention, living in a Jewish community in Mexico means, as a shared pattern in so many other Jewish communities in the world, the noticeable value of solidarity to help each other mainly among Jewish families, their economical stability is usually excellent, but they seldom interact with members of other communities, as in this case with the majority of the Mexican community. So, the entrance of a person coming from a community different to theirs means entering into a delicate territory and a possible difficult welcome as in the case of Teresa and her children acceptance into a “pure” Jewish family.
It is worth to give a brief historical explanation of the Jewish community established in Mexico. The Jewish presence in Mexico dates back from the XVI century, but their community did not flourish due to the Inquisition period and choice to live a clandestine religiosity. But from 1877 to 1910, the president Porfirio Diaz opened the doors to the European immigration, and the Jewish presence was mainly coming from France was an important one for giving a significant contribution to the progress of the nation. Though at that time they did not establish a unified Jewish community, and most of them came back to Europe. The last Jewish immigration, mainly coming from Syria, Turkey and Greece, together with immigrants from the Eastern Europe, such as Poland and Ukraine constitute the nowadays Jewish community joining to the Mexican cultural diversity. Comite Central de la Comunidad Judia en Mexico: http://www.tribuna.org.mx/presencia/actividades
At first sight, it might probably seem an unfair situation, but this phenomenon is understandable taking into consideration the Jewish community have always been a people of persecution, conflict and violence, victims of tremendous unfair historical events, and anti-Semitism they have beard mainly in the last century during the Second World War and even nowadays with the new anti-Semitism breakouts.
Though they are aware they live in a host country which has always welcomed them very friendly and little by little they were integrated into the Mexican society, I believe they also want to keep and respect the line of the traditions their ancestors have taught to them; and for natural ethnocentric attitudes, it might probably be difficult for some of them to understand their people mixed with some other ethnical or religious groups; and even though their presence has an important economic, cultural and scientific impact in the Mexican country, they might probably feel menaced considering they represent a very small minority of the Mexican society.
It is also important to mention that the ethnocentric attitudes or cultural stereotypes coexist not only within the Jewish community but also within the rest of the Mexican community towards them. The image of a Jewish person living in Mexico viewed from a citizen not from Jewish origin within a social context, means being rich, chic, educated, and in some cases, unfortunately: not very much tolerant with other ethnical and religious groups.
As we can see with this general panorama of both communities coexisting in a common ground, implies an unconscious creation of typical mutual misunderstandings or cultural stereotypes of a given community. These stereotypes make difficult to handle the cultural shock of the first impression or everyday encounters.