If a couple with one Jewish partner chose only a rabbi or cantor to marry them, they were three times more likely to raise their children as Jewish than an intermarried couple with a Jewish partner where clergy of different faiths officiated at their wedding.
The research, titled Under the Chuppah: Rabbinic Officiation and Intermarriage, was carried out among former participants in Birthright trips to Israel by the Centre for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.
It found that 94 per cent of couples where both partners were Jewish raised their children as Jewish; 85 per cent of intermarried couples where only a Jewish officiant conducted the wedding; but just 23 per cent of intermarried couples where the wedding ceremony was under different auspices.
Forty-one per cent of the all-Jewish couples belonged to a synagogue; 34 per cent of intermarried couples with a sole Jewish wedding officiant; but just 7 per cent of intermarried couples who were married otherwise.