Do you have one Jewish Parent? A couple years ago I asked Dr. Bruce Phillips to direct me to research done regarding the experiences of adults from interfaith families. He told me that there was none and that WE should do a study. So that’s what we’re doing. We want to offer a picture of…
Read More »Adult Child of an Interfaith Family
Parents’ divorce set young Jew adrift at the Holidays
The High Holy Days can bring up some intense feelings for every Jew. One young man contacted me with a unique issue around the Holidays – his interfaith parents’ divorce and the subsequent lack of clarity about his status. My dad is Jewish and my mom converted before they got married. Her conversion was…
Read More »Do You Consider Yourself Part Jewish, Half Jewish, Jew-ish?
Do You Have One Jewish Parent? Do you see yourself as Jewish, half-Jewish, part Jewish, Jew-ish? Were you raised as a Jew, a Christian, a Hindu, some of this and that? We are looking for people who have one Jewish parent and would like to talk about their experience, share their stories, their questions, their…
Read More »Share your Experience of Growing up in an Interfaith Family
Feeling confident as a Jew can be complicated for individuals with one Jewish parent and one non-Jewish parent. For people who have a Jewish mother, Jewish law (halachah) is on your side. No matter how you were raised, if you decide you want to identify as Jewish, the Jewish world accepts you. But it may…
Read More »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 »Books for Adults who grew up in Interfaith Families
There are very few books about the experience of people who grew up with parents of different faiths. These individuals typically get portrayed in one of two extremes -tragically mixed-up or messiahs of religious peace. They are neither. The current books that have anything reasonable to say are these two. Between Two Worlds Written by…
Read More »