(This article was first published in my Mixed and Matched column in the J-weekly on Nov. 11, 2014) Dear Dawn, My wife loves Christmas, and it makes me so uncomfortable. I know I’m a Scrooge every December, but I just can’t help it. She doesn’t go to church, but she decorates the hell out of…
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Dear Dawn: I am Jewish and my wife is an atheist (family hasn’t been Christian for three generations so there are no issues with that). We had a Jewish wedding and agreed to raise our future child Jewish. While we were engaged, my wife took a yearlong conversion prep class (didn’t convert). But since our marriage…
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I didn’t marry my Jewish fiancé and it worked out OK. Dear Dawn: I hope you remember me; I wanted to tell you what happened after my fiancé and I met with you several years ago. I am Catholic and he is Jewish. We wanted to figure out how to raise children in an interfaith marriage….
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Dear Dawn: How many times do I have to hear a Jewish parent worry about the future of their child’s romance with a non-Jew? At a recent lunch with several Jewish girlfriends, one worried out loud about her son’s non-Jewish girlfriend. There is always this focus on the non-Jewish girlfriend/boyfriend’s perceived level of interest (or lack…
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Beth Am, Lehrhaus Judaica and Building Jewish Bridges present a photo essay exhibition showcasing the range of diversity in our community. The exhibition features 23 intimate portraits of individuals and families from a variety of backgrounds and levels of religious observance — from the North and South Peninsulas, San Francisco, Oakland/Berkeley, Contra Costa, and Marin….
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Are interfaith relationships “hard”? You could reframe this question as, “Are relationships hard?” The answer is sure. Some are easier than others, but sharing your life with another complete human is hard. You have to share, you have to give some things up, you have to take on things that don’t thrill you. In an…
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