A few years ago I was running a group for the non-Jewish spouses in my synagogue – JUST the spouses, no Jews. They were able to complain and rejoice, to question and answer each other. It was a powerful time for all of us. I loved learning from them. One woman in the group complained…
Read More »
(Photo by Renee Lynn Frojo) As many of you know I have a mixed family – mixed religions, mixed races, mixed cultures. Personally I love it. One of the areas that I find to be wonderfully malleable is FOOD. There are so many opportunities to blend cuisines between traditions! I read this beautiful email from…
Read More »
(This article first appeared in my Mixed and Matched column in the J-weekly.) Dear Dawn: My daughter is 4 and we are raising her Jewish. My husband’s Christian parents attend a very progressive Presbyterian church. We have all attended services with them on occasion. However, our daughter is getting to the age where we need to explain…
Read More »
Where Will You Spend Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah? Non-Jewish families are often confronted with which spouse’s family will get them for Christmas. One solution is to flip back and forth for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For interfaith families the question of “who gets us?” can be, Thanksgiving with the Jewish family and Christmas with the Christian (or…
Read More »
Let’s talk about the Passover – Easter issue for a moment First, to my Jewish readers, I’ve heard from a few people who feel stressed by the Easter themed activities at schools and day cares. Several people told me they asked the management to stop doing Christian activities and were met with resistance. Take a…
Read More »
Why draw attention to differences? In interfaith homes there can be a strong desire to focus on what is the “same” between two faiths. This focus can become extreme when the adults teach the children that there “really is no significant difference” between say, Christianity and Judaism; they share universal values. It is quite true…
Read More »Our weekly email goes out to hundreds of interfaith couples & families in the Bay Area. Topics cover the many questions and mysteries that interfaith couples want answered.