Kveller, an online magazine published the first person story of a woman whose eldest daughter from her first marriage is not Jewish and her second daughter from a Jewish marriage, is Jewish. How this woman got to this place in life is interesting and is the result of being alive in a time when many…
Read More »Parenting
“A room full of penises”
Today I want to talk about an intimate, yet very common, human body part – the penis — which really means, let’s talk about circumcision. A true story from the mother of a high school age boy When my son was in middle school he decided he wanted to go to a Jewish summer camp…
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…
Read More »Should I take my adopted child to the mikvah?
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 »Can we find something to worry about? How about food?
A Jewish woman marrying a non-Jewish man sent in this angst-ridden question to Boston’s Jewish Journal: I am marrying into a lovely family that is not Jewish. My family is hosting a dinner to meet the future in-laws. My mother, who prides herself on being a superb cook, is planning to serve all her Jewish…
Read More »A Non-Jewish Man Reflects on Raising Jewish Children
In my January 2014 column, Mixed and Matched, I shared a letter from a Jewish Dad who felt his wife was not doing enough to raise his children as Jews. After reading the article a gentleman who is the non-Jewish husband in a couple who has participated in my programs wrote a very astute article…
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