One of the challenges for people who have grown up in an interfaith family that has created its own little universe is that there’s not necessarily a community that one can join that reflects your choices. Here’s one woman’s difficulty. My mother was raised Jewish and converted to Christianity when she married my Christian…
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What Did People Say about the Growing Up Interfaith Conference?
The speakers were fantastic and voices of adults raised in interfaith families were HEARD. So goal accomplished. Some comments: *It was therapeutic. It was interesting to hear a variety of people’s experiences in a safe place. Usually there’s one person that tries to give explanations or invalidate others experiences but in this setting, people can…
Read More »Parents & Community are responsible for our children from interfaith families
A couple years ago I heard a mother interviewed on NPR. She was talking about her son, now a young adult, who had overcome serious learning disabilities. She said that her son had told her that despite all that he had gone through he would not wish away his condition because it had made him…
Read More »This Conservatively trained Cantor grew up in an Interfaith Home
Cantor Jennie Chabon shared this story with her congregation: For the first 13 years of my life, I had a beautiful Christmas tree in my living room every winter, and an Easter basket filled with chocolate waiting outside my door every spring on Easter morning. One year my parents made flour footprints leading from our…
Read More »How does it feel to be given the choice of religions?
Jason Segel, star of How I Met Your Mother (and various films) is the son of a Christian mother and a Jewish father. Segel was recently interviewed on Marc Maron’s podcast, WTF. About 15 minutes into the podcast the subject of religion comes up. For the next 5 minutes Jason pokes gentle fun at…
Read More »Parents’ divorce set young Jew adrift at the Holidays
The High Holy Days can bring up some intense feelings for every Jew. One young man contacted me with a unique issue around the Holidays – his interfaith parents’ divorce and the subsequent lack of clarity about his status. My dad is Jewish and my mom converted before they got married. Her conversion was…
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