Tony Kushner’s new play, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures This spring, Berkeley Rep presents Tony Kushner’s new play, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures In this play Kushner uses one argumentative family to explore some of the major…
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A Patralineal Jew chooses to Convert
Michella Ore wrote a wonderful article for JVibe, a now out-of-print Jewish teen magazine, back in the spring of 2009. I contacted her recently to ask if I could reprint her article. I also asked her to give us an update on how her decisions were turning out for her. As a biracial daughter of…
Read More »After the Play: Tribes
Building Jewish Bridges is again using local theater arts to explore elements of Jewish thinking and identity. This spring we are working with Berkeley Repertory Theater using two of their productions as springboards to a discussion. This spring playwright Nina Raine’s play, Tribes, will be produced at Berkeley Rep from April 11 to May 11….
Read More »Sitting Shiva
Observing death in a Jewish home In any family it is important to discuss how people will respond to a death. In an interfaith family this is particularly important because there is no shared tradition to fall back on. Here are some basics about Shiva, to help you understand the role of observing shiva and…
Read More »What if One of us Dies?
Where and how will each of us be buried? I’ve been asked how to plan for a funeral in an interfaith family. What things should be taken into consideration in order to plan for that inevitable day when one spouse must bury the other? Can the non-Jew be buried in a Jewish cemetery? Who will…
Read More »Are there “right” and “wrong” roles for interfaith parents?
Who is Right? Last month I wrote a column for the JWeekly and shared the story of a Jewish man who was relying on his non-Jewish wife to ‘raise the kids Jewish.’ I got some very different reactions to it. Some people came down hard on the man saying he should be stepping up to…
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