I have a friend who is a food writer and chef. She blogs about food and she writes a food column for the J-weekly (the San Francisco bay area Jewish newspaper). She called me a couple months ago as she was writing her December column to ask, “Is having Christmas and Hanukkah overlap fantastic for…
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When Hanukkah & Christmas Overlap
Rabbi Milder of Beth Emek in Pleasanton shared the following thoughts with his congregation on the overlap of Christmas and Hanukkah this year. He doesn’t just explain how it is that the two holidays can overlap one year but not the next, he explains the different calendars. It’s some pretty useful information. As Americans we…
Read More »I Want to Identify as Half and Half
I received this question sent to my Mixed and Matched column. (Image from Wikicommons) This isn’t a common question, but it is not unheard of either. Sometimes the adult child of an interfaith couple wants to feel they are part of both their parents and they want others to reflect their choice. My father is…
Read More »I love Christmas, but my boyfriend says no to all that
Thinking ahead to the December holidays, here’s a question that was sent to my Mixed and Matched column in the Jweekly: My boyfriend is Jewish and I’m not. I really love Christmas and he doesn’t want to have it in our apartment. I’m not religious; I just love all the fun things about Christmas….
Read More »To Tree or not to Tree: What Will We Do for the Holidays?
You may want to decorate a Christmas tree while your partner wants to make latkes. What will work for you as a family? Whether December is your favorite month – full of Christmas cookies and chocolate gelt – or your most dreaded month – material surfeit and cultural overwhelm – you are invited to…
Read More »DOUBLE ROOTS: A FILM AND DISCUSSION
A girl with a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father was raised with no religion, and outside of Jewish culture. Decades later, as an adult, she immersed herself in Jewish life–secular and religious. This led her to be curious about other others who had one Jewish parent: how had they been raised? And how were…
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