Planning a b’nai mitzvah is stressful enough if you had one yourself, but if you weren’t raised Jewish it can be truly nerve wracking. There are the questions of how the study process works, timing, sessions, amount to be learned, how to help your child succeed. Then there’s the non-Jewish partner and extended family. How…
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What Makes a Home “Jewish”?
A Jew may ask their spouse to agree to have a “Jewish” home. But what does that mean? To a non-Jewish loved one it may mean simply that some of the people in the house say they are Jews. But our partners deserve a more in-depth answer. One Jew may say, a Jewish home has…
Read More »Ain’t We Got Fun!
One of the best things about belonging to a community is that there are other people to create fun activities FOR you and to support the ones you create. A friend of mine is entranced with the music of Tin Pan Alley. He has become quite the expert on the musicians, politics and social upheaval…
Read More »Make 2015 a year of activities & community
What’s up for 2015! Now looking into the coming year – I am offering a number of occasions for adults raised in interfaith homes to reflect on and share their experiences of growing up. Those memories are as different as the people who hold them and yet there are also patterns and experiences that are…
Read More »Are Our Children Jewish?
Patralineal Descent, Reform Judaism & Those Other Jews In 1983 the Reform movement officially recognized children of Jewish fathers as Jewish. But if you read the statement it says that every child of a mixed marriage, whether the mother or father is Jewish, must establish their identity as a Jew “through appropriate and timely public…
Read More »What’s in a Jewish Name?
Join B’nai Tikvah congregants for services on Friday January 9 at 6:30pm, when I will be speaking in the sermon slot. My subject is the special place name and naming rituals holds in Jewish tradition. This dovetails with the start of a new book of the Torah called Shemot, in which the Twelve Tribes of…
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