A mother sent me this question about her adopted child. I am Jewish and my husband is not. We adopted a girl, 8 months old, whose birth mother is not Jewish. We belong to a Reform synagogue and our rabbi said if we raise our daughter with Jewish lifecycle events and synagogue life, she is…
Read More »Jews of Color
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 »Jewish and Asian in San Francisco
A 2004 study of the bay area Jewish population found that 14% of families in our community include Jews of color. That means that at least every tenth Jew you see is a multiracial Jew or lives in a multiracial family. But that was nine years ago. That percentage can only have grown. You would…
Read More »Jewish and Asian in San Francisco
We had such a wonderful series of panel discussions in the East Bay about our multiracial Jewish community. I asked Sherith Israel to host the next gathering and several of our panelists grew up at Sherith Israel! Come on over and hear from all of them. The Jewish community if the San Francisco bay area…
Read More »Interfaith or Interracial or Inter-ethnic: Jewish Families All
John Citron opened his presentation with, “My wife, Felicia, and I have been on a number of Dawn’s panels – interfaith and interracial and now both.” He went on to describe how they have raised their kids as Jews with an understanding of their Chinese heritage. Debbie, wife and mother in a Jewish Filipino home…
Read More »All in the Family: Jews talk about their Multiracial Families
Parents, siblings, aunts and cousins may be white but when their family includes racially diverse members they too are impacted by racial assumptions in the Jewish community. What do white family members have to share with us about how we can be more tuned in to their family? Join us for a dynamic and exciting…
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