You’ve made the big decision – we’ll raise our child(ren) as Jews. Now what? Does this mean no Christmas or Easter? How do we interact with our non-Jewish family’s holidays? What synagogue should we join and how can we ask for specific support in our process? Is a lot of the effort falling on a…
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One of Us is Jewish But We’ve Chosen Christianity, Now What?
The Christian spouse knows how to ‘do’ Christianity and is supported in this by our American Christian culture, but you may still want to introduce a concept of Jewish heritage to your child. We’ll discuss how to offer the concept of Jewish roots without disrupting your child’s Christian identity. Also, if your child’s mother is…
Read More »What Religion Will We Pick for our Child?
What Religion Will We Pick for our Child? Choosing a religious identity for a child is often feels like the hardest decision an interfaith couple faces. If both of you are attached to your religious/cultural heritage you may have gotten stuck in a circular conversation that nobody wins. Couples want to be fair to each…
Read More »Religious & Cultural Identity for Your Child & Your Home
Interfaith Couples Raising Children: Identity for Your Child & Your Home Three Workshops, come to one or come to all of them Choosing a religious identity for your child is often feels like the hardest decision an interfaith couple faces. If both of you are attached to your religious/cultural heritage you may have gotten stuck…
Read More »Children and Bedtime Prayers
A prayer before bedtime A Christian mom on this list told me that she was raised saying a prayer before bedtime. In thinking over the prayer she realized that there was nothing about Jesus, nothing anti-Jewish in it and began saying it with her own children. She loves having something from her own childhood that…
Read More »Can We Raise ‘spiritual’ children with Dual Identities?
Another question from my Mixed and Matched column in the J-Weekly. My husband is not Jewish; I am. Neither of us is very religious, but we are spiritual. Our kids are 3 and 5, and we can’t figure out what to do about religion. We want them to understand both of us and our…
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