A few years ago I was running a group for the non-Jewish spouses in my synagogue – JUST the spouses, no Jews. They were able to complain and rejoice, to question and answer each other. It was a powerful time for all of us. I loved learning from them. One woman in the group complained…
Read More »Life Cycle
My daughter won’t circumcise her son — what can I do?
(This article first appeared in my Mixed and Matched column in the J-weekly on November 5, 2018) Dear Dawn: My pregnant daughter just learned her baby is a boy. She and I just had an animated discussion because she announced to me she doesn’t plan to circumcise him. Her non-Jewish husband is circumcised and on my…
Read More »My Son’s Bar Mitzvah Is Postponed Due to Covid. What should I do?
Dear Dawn: My son Joey’s bar mitzvah was scheduled for June of this year and now it can’t happen as planned. Our synagogue is closed. Some of my son’s peers are having a Zoom bar mitzvah on their scheduled date and planning to have a chance to read their Torah portion to the congregation at a…
Read More »Happy Juneteenth and our diverse Jewish family
Thursday morning I got up early for a 7am virtual bat mitzvah. Many years ago a young woman went through some of my classes and decided to convert. I connected her to a rabbi. She became a Jew. In a few years she met a man and fell in love. He wasn’t Jewish so we…
Read More »My son’s bar mitzvah has to be postponed due to Covid-19
(This article originally appeared in the J-weekly Mixed and Matched column.) Dear Dawn: My son Joey’s bar mitzvah was scheduled for June of this year and now it can’t happen as planned. Our synagogue is closed. Some of my son’s peers are having a Zoom bar mitzvah on their scheduled date and planning to have…
Read More »My Tween is Resisting Having a Bat Mitzvah
(Family bat mitzvah) A letter to my Mixed and Matched Column in the J-Weekly Dear Dawn: How do I encourage a do-nothing tween to want a bat mitzvah? At 11, my daughter doesn’t want to do anything except watch YouTube all day. Complains about going to Sunday school but has fun once there. I suspect as…
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