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 interfaith relationship there are…
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My Christian Boyfriend loves Yom Kippur, Won’t all Christians?
(A recent letter for my Mixed and Matched column in the J weekly.) Dear Dawn In the past you have said that a Jew shouldn’t make the High Holiday services the very first Jewish service that their non-Jewish partner experiences. But last year my observant Christian boyfriend loved Yom Kippur. He said he likes it…
Read More »Why aren’t Jews as warm and welcoming as Christians?
A Mixed and Matched column first published in the J weekly March of 2017. My boyfriend was raised Presbyterian and is agnostic now. I feel like a lot of Jews are agnostic and he should be comfortable in a synagogue. However, when we go to shul, I feel like the people are not as warm…
Read More »Focus on your Love of Judaism, not your Discomfort with other Traditions
I love to share the personal reflections and experiences of individuals from interfaith families. I spotted this article in a synagogue newsletter and contacted the writer for permission to post it here. Learn to embrace and love Jewish activities instead of focusing on the non-Jewish divide By Lisa Fernandez Many of you might already know….
Read More »How to tell people you’re perfectly fine without Christmas
I wrote the opinion piece for the J-Weekly because so many Jews told me they felt pressured to embrace Christmas. Please expand your idea of what other people “should” like. Growing up without a formal religion in the United States can lead many people to insist, “I have no religion. I’m certainly not a…
Read More »Hanukkah & Christmas: Is it a Dilemma?
Hanukkah and Christmas – the “December dilemma”. I never liked that term “dilemma”. Not that there isn’t an element of difficulty for an interfaith household, but the word made it seem so dire. I think I would prefer, December Questions, because it all boils down to a lot of questions. The core one being, how…
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