My Mixed and Matched column for February 2015 is a response to a young woman whose family includes Modern Orthodox cousins and her secular and intermarried relatives. My answer is on the J-Weekly website. She is hurt by the conflict between the adults in her family. For many children, the most important thing is family…
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I’m Jewish, she’s Asian—what will our future kids be?
Another question from my Mixed and Matched column in the J-Weekly. I’m a 26-year-old Conservative Jew and celebrate the major Jewish holidays, although I’m not terribly religious. I’ve been dating a Korean girl who is Catholic but also not very religious. We are getting serious and I’m scared. I do love her, she’s my…
Read More »I Went to My Cousin’s Crispening
In the 1990’s, glory days of Interfaith Outreach, the American Jewish community was intently focused on successful approaches to teaching Judaism to children from interfaith homes. In their 1996 book, I Went to My Cousin’s Crispening, Margie Zeskind and Sheilia Silverberg were among the first Jewish educators to help Hebrew school teachers deal with the…
Read More »Our adopted baby doesn’t need a ceremony, but I do
March 2014 column of Mixed and Matched in the J-Weekly The question: I am Jewish and my husband is not. We adopted a girl, 8 months old, whose birth mother is not Jewish. We belong to a Reform synagogue and our rabbi said if we raise our daughter with Jewish lifecycle events and synagogue…
Read More »What about Grandparents?
Today I asked young friends what they thought of the practice that the Jewish cultural website Jewcy has of titling many of their articles, Not Your Bubbe/Zayde’s something-or-other – brunch, seder, costume. I find it rather sad. I miss my grandparents and treasure the small things I have from them – old photos, recipes, a…
Read More »How Dare People Say I’m Not Jewish!
What are the challenges that patralineal Jews face regarding their identity as Jews? Here are some of the things they have to say: My dad is Jewish, my mom is not. I was adopted and raised Jewish. My mom had a Reform conversion. Why do people tell us we aren’t Jewish? Are you annoyed, hurt,…
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