Cantor Jennie Chabon shared this story with her congregation: For the first 13 years of my life, I had a beautiful Christmas tree in my living room every winter, and an Easter basket filled with chocolate waiting outside my door every spring on Easter morning. One year my parents made flour footprints leading from our…
Read More »Adult Child of an Interfaith Family
Growing Up Interfaith – a 2016 Conference
Growing Up Interfaith Stats, Facts, and Testimonies Since the advent of the term “interfaith” the Jewish focus has been on the intermarried couple. Research has not explored the experiences of the children of these couples. This conference will be a forum for these previously unheard voices. Adult children of interfaith couples will discuss what parental…
Read More »Growing up Jewish and Scottish
I have decided to start sharing some of the comments from individuals who grew up in an interfaith family. I am including those whose mothers converted and who have been hurt by people’s discrediting their Jewish identity based on that and that alone. All quotes are posted WITH THE PERMISSION of the individual who shared…
Read More »Are Our Children Jewish?
Patrilineal Descent, Reform Judaism and 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 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 »Jewish Activities + Save the Date
This week a Jewish woman called me and asked, “Could my husband and I come talk to you about how it is for kids to be raised in an interfaith family? What do they tell you about what works for them?” Of course, I said yes. I was thrilled that this couple is asking, what…
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