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 »Adult Child of an Interfaith Family
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 »Below the Belt: Adult Circumcision for Conversion
When a man converts to Judaism he must consider whether he will have a ritual circumcision or the ceremony of Hatafat Dam (the ritual drawing of a drop of blood). These procedures bring up a lot of confusion, concern, and even fear. This program will clear up myths and answer questions such as: Why does…
Read More »When You are the ‘Other’ and other Purim events
Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in? You were the ‘other’? There are many reasons for feeling, I’m out of place, or as a dear friend of mine says, I feel like an onion in a petunia patch. Here are some: I’m Catholic in a Jewish family; I’m Chinese and Jewish; I’m gay;…
Read More »