I last wrote about an event at our local JCC where we discussed the state of interfaith families in the Jewish community. Which was eye opening and all around a great night. It actually helped us to create a new interfaith group. After that night I had one on one meetings with leaders of the Jewish community. We talked about the ways to get interfaith couples and families involved and how to make the community more welcoming. From those I learned…
As I mentioned earlier this week, I went to an Interfaith Community Conversation last month. JMAP did a study of our area, those in the Jewish community. There were some pretty interesting results from the survey. There were a ton of really interesting topics: family, Israel, synagogues. One of the areas that they looked into was interfaith families. The conversation was in response to some of the results the survey showed. Read the full interfaith findings here. Overwhelmingly respondents felt that…
Someone once asked me if J was religious. I said, not particularly, probably is more culturally Jewish. This person (who is against interfaith relationships) immediately went on a tirade about my in-laws as parents raising a Jew. If only they had been more involved in the synagogue. If only they had made him go to a Jewish day school or a Jewish summer camp. They should have fostered more of a Jewish identity in their home. If they had been clear intermarriage was…
When I had lunch with a clergy spouse, it lead to an interfaith conversation. I can’t say I agreed with his feelings, but I understood them. New England is a weird place to move to. Especially if you move to a place that’s kind of far from a big city. J and I are lucky — we’ve made friends here because everyone we work with is a transplant. Those who aren’t in the same boat, struggle. This is how…
Sometimes interfaith life can seem like we’re Sisyphus, where each time we think we’ve figured it out the boulder comes back down and we’re trying to figure it out again. We went from not caring about organized religions, to an almost Jewish couple, to decidedly interfaith leaning Jewish. It’s been the leaning Jewish part that’s been a struggle. You see, there’s a ton of interfaith websites out there to support you if you’ve chosen to practice Judaism. Interfaith resources where…
Recently JTA published this article about the Rabbis at B’nai Jeshurun, an influential non-denominational New York City synagogue, deciding they would officiate the weddings of interfaith couples who commit to raising Jewish children and having a Jewish home. On the heels of that announcement, the Jewish Theological Seminary committed themselves to their ban on clergy officiating interfaith marriages. While the B’nai Jeshurun announcement wasn’t perfect by any means and proves we still have a long way to go in supporting…
Every so often our congregation puts together dinners of different parts of the community. They’re always hosted by someone in the community who cooks up an amazing meal and there’s great conversation. Sometimes they’re just for empty nesters, or our TRIBE group of 20’s and 30’s, families with mitzvah kids in the coming year, and sometimes they’re open to all. I love my TRIBE dinners, but there’s something to be said about the open ones. I say this because…
I wrote previously about Finding Our Officiant. It was something that wasn’t with out struggle. Right now I have just 17 days left until I’m married. For a lot of reasons J and I had an engagement that has lasted over two years. And it’s good that we have. It gave us a lot of time to grow not just as a couple but as individuals as well. If it had only been a year I might have rushed into converting…
When I was a full-time, practicing Catholic I my favorite time of year was Lent. I’ll admit, it is odd for someone to say that they love Lent. But as a child I liked the challenge of not doing something I enjoyed. As I got older I enjoyed having that time to reflect on what truly mattered. I also lived for Palm Sunday mass because it was really like a play and I’ve always had a bit of a flair…
I haven’t been able to write for a few days. we’re in the process of moving to our house. Which has totally taken over my life. I’ve known what I wanted my next post to be about, but I wasn’t sure how to write about it. I guess I’ll start with the fact that we didn’t put our menorah out this year in our window. We always did, but this year was different and I’m still not ok with why I felt…