CCAR RESPONSA
American Reform Responsa
12. Forfeiture of Congregational Membership by Intermarriage
(Vol. XXVI, 1916, pp. 133-134)
Whether the congregational bylaw, reading that members who contract a forbidden marriage forfeit their membership and no person married to a non-Jew may be a member of the congregation, should be changed, is, in my opinion, an altogether different question (for burial of a non-Jew in a Jewish cemetery or the duty of a rabbi to officiate in a non-Jewish cemetery, see p. 25). It seems to me that the law should stand. Forbidden marriages have disastrous results, especially in regard to the offspring, while, on the other hand, the second sentence simply aims at preventing mixed marriagesin the congregation, but does not imply that they entail forfeiture of membership when concluded before the affiliation to the congregation. Self-preservation dictates the retention of the bylaw.
K. Kohler and Jacob Z. Lauterbach
See also:
S.B. Freehof, “Temple Membership of Mixed Couple,” Recent Reform Responsa, pp. 63ff; “Gentile Membership in Synagogue,” Reform Responsa for Our Time, pp. 221ff.
If needed, please consult Abbreviations used in CCAR Responsa.