(Image: Guinness Hamentashen for Irish Jewish kids!) What about the children? If you are in an interfaith/intercultural family then your children have family members who are not Jewish, who may follow other religions or traditions, yet these people are an important part of your child’s life. How can you recognize and honor this part of…
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I’ve scheduled a couple of terrific classes for 2022 and want to give you a heads-up. First, we’ll look at a topic that people fear for no reason: Honoring Your Jewish Child’s Non-Jewish Heritage How will you teach your children about the “other” parent’s traditions and heritage? Every child must know who they are, where…
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Two just claims can conflict. Two people of good will can be at odds. Should one side be eliminated in order to have peace? Or can we compromise and live with people with whom we disagree? This question arises frequently when interfaith couples are addressing patrilineal descent – children of a Jewish father and a…
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(This column first appeared in the J-weekly on Feb. 10, 2021) Dear Dawn: I was raised Reform, but am now a nonpracticing Jew married to a non-Jewish woman. We were married by my Reform rabbi and are expecting a baby. My wife has no religion and has agreed to raise the child Jewish and even…
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Last week I wrote to you that experiencing Christmas will not destroy your child’s Jewish identity and it won’t. Period. But that still means you have to GIVE them a Jewish identity. Going without Christmas won’t build a Jewish identity; you have to proactively teach your child that they are Jewish. So if you’re hanging…
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Many years ago Christmas fell on a Saturday. My family was invited to the annual Christmas party of some friends and the party was on Friday night, AKA Christmas Eve. My husband and I typically took our kids to Erev Shabbat services. They were under ten and a short service worked well for them. But…
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