NARRATOR: Max's strong feelings against intermarriage were based more on cultural differences than on religious conviction. His Jewishness was a permanent part of him; in his household Yiddish was the first and major language. Jewish culture pervaded the apartments, the neighborhoods, the schools. All of his children received a Hebrew education and were bar-mitzvahed, but the family did not adhere to Jewish law in everyday activities. They were not kosher, did not attend services steadily, and did not strictly observe the Sabbath. Although they were surrounded by Eastern European Yiddish culture, his children were not entirely sheltered from other cultures and religions. It was inevitable that in a city like New York, into which all races and types were moving, the tight-knit Jewish community would change. Yiddishkeit /23/ had grown out of a self-protective need to stay together; in the United States this need was gradually diminished. Thus Yiddishkeit flourished only as long as it was needed.

Still, most of the first generation of children spent their childhoods with others of their kind. The Jews went to the City College of New York with other Jews, established businesses with Jews, and married Jews. Intermarriage was almost unthinkable. Persecution and pogroms were still too fresh in the memories of the parents – the fear that it could happen again made it essential that the Jews stayed together.

Of Max's children who married, all chose Jews. It is difficult to say whether this was out of their personal convictions or more out of respect for their parents. One son did marry a Gentile after a divorce; but it was twenty years after his first marriage. Out of ten grandchildren to result from those marriages, three out of the five who have married are married to non-Jews.

Max took all of this in stride; perhaps his attitude towards his own family was the employment of his practical over his emotional side. His preoccupation with the failure of his own second marriage, however, significantly colored his words.