Archives

Patrilineal Descent, Reform Judaism & Those Other Jews

In 1983 the Reform movement officially recognized children of Jewish fathers as Jewish. But if you read the statement it says that every child of a mixed marriage, whether the mother or father is Jewish, must establish their identity as a Jew “through appropriate and timely public and formal acts of identification with the Jewish…

Read More »

Coming this Spring…

The Spring 2015 line up of Building Jewish Bridges workshops and classes! January What’s in a Jewish Name? Join B’nai Tikvah congregants for services on Friday January 9 at 6:30pm, when I will be speaking in the sermon slot. My subject is the special place name and naming rituals holds in Jewish tradition. This dovetails…

Read More »

A Non-Jewish Mother Reflects on Raising Jewish Children

In January 2014 my Mixed and Matched column addressed the concerns a Jewish Dad had about his wife’s ‘failure’ to raise the kids Jewish. Many people reacted to the article with some anger at his failure to take responsibility for raising his own children. But some non-Jewish spouses had other thoughts. One non-Jewish mother had…

Read More »