What will we do about Christmas and/or Hanukkah? Each member of an interfaith family arrives with their own traditions, which may or may not be satisfying. What are your needs? Are they being met? Chances are you haven’t asked that of yourself and other family members. December, where the mega holiday, Christmas, meets the minor holiday, Hanukkah, can be…
Read More »
Rabbi Larry Milder of Beth Emek in Pleasanton is participating in an Interfaith Prayer service for his community for Thanksgiving. In his invitation he addresses a critical question: Can people of different faiths pray together? And to my mind a more critical question: Do we all really believe the same thing(s)? Please read his well…
Read More »
For Rosh Hashanah morning services I was at Temple Isaiah in Lafayette. You can image how my heart swelled with joy when Rabbi Perlman called her non-Jewish members to the Torah and offered this blessing: —– Today we want to recognize and publicly acknowledge for blessing those among our community who do not identify as…
Read More »
(A Torah scroll laid out for repair by a sofer, a Hebrew scribe) One of the things that bothers me a great deal is the believe by many (Jews and non-Jews) that there is a single true Jewish belief on everything from God to food. You can image how happy I was to see this…
Read More »
When you date or marry a Jew… Most non-Jewish Americans feel they know a decent amount about Judaism. But when they partner up with a Jew they learn there’s a lot more to it than Tevye and bagels. Not only are there many aspects to Judaism as a whole, but every individual Jew wants to…
Read More »
If you didn’t grow up a Jew, but you’re now in a relationship with one, you’ve discovered a wide range of negotiable issues. Do you recognize any of these? Will we have a Jewish home, and what does that mean? Will I be an observer or a participant in Judaism in our home? Will we…
Read More »Our weekly email goes out to hundreds of interfaith couples & families in the Bay Area. Topics cover the many questions and mysteries that interfaith couples want answered.