Recently I was with a couple of women, each of whom is married to a non-Jewish man. The first, I’ll call her Lisa, expressed her opinions with great intensity. She had strong beliefs on how to deal with an interfaith marriage, what to do, how to act, what to teach your children, how to…
Read More »There are a lot of books for planning weddings! I’m only going to mention my top favorites. A book aimed specifically at interfaith weddings is, Celebrating Interfaith Marriage by Rabbi Devon Lerner. I wouldn’t be recommending this book if I thought it suggested watering down EVERYONE’s traditions. Rabbi Lerner walks you through the wedding traditions…
Read More »This is a true story. A Jewish man called me because he was worried that his Christian wife couldn’t raise their kids as Jews. He told me that she had promised to do so before they got married but she just doesn’t really know how. He sighed and said, “I guess when I married someone…
Read More »Interfaith/Intercultural couples are usually aware that they will have to negotiate differences in their religions, but they may be surprised by needing to navigate cultural differences regarding communication, parenting, parents, and their definition of community. Make the process easier by engaging with other couples facing similar questions. Create an outline of how to approach a…
Read More »How Can We Dealing Graciously with our children’s Grandparents? How do you tell your parents about the different choices you’ve made? It can be hard to say, we’re raising the kids Jewish. We will/won’t have a Christmas tree. The baby will/won’t be baptized, receive a bris, have a bar mitzvah. What can we tell the…
Read More »I’ll say it again, the BEST thing you can do for your relationship is take part in an interfaith/intercultural couples discussion group. You may have religious differences to sort out. Or perhaps one or both of you are secular and grew up in the United States so you aren’t quite sure what your cultural differences…
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.