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…
Today marks the sixth year that J and I have been together. Which is crazy to think about all that has changed in those six years We lived in LA and London (briefly for both of those) We graduated college We started working and settled in one place We bought a house! (That’s a very recent one) We’ve been to more than 30 weddings together all over the globe. Two siblings have gotten married We now have six total…
We have a really, really great home for our faith. If you’re ever looking for an inclusive Jewish community in north central part of Connecticut, I have a great one! We found it months after moving to Connecticut from college. When we first arrived it had two wonderful, shockingly young, Rabbis. The sweetest Cantor and a community that couldn’t be beat. Three years later, there’s been some changes. One of our Rabbis moved on, our Cantor retired. So now our Rabbis…
I’m a big fan of On Being Both, the blog by Susan Katz Miller. it’s helped me feel like my children aren’t going to hate me for choosing not to convert. Which is, shockingly, a real fear I have. I love reading other people’s interfaith stories. It’s amazing how what seems like a similar experience ends up so different for everyone. She wrote a great piece about the phrase intermarriage in Forward. I largely don’t take issue with non-Jew, but I know a…
With the mikvah postponed until our schedules matched I had time to think and I made a bigger decision than to convert. I decided to not finish my conversion. So close to the finish line, so close to finally being the same. Here’s the truth, the wedding suddenly was coming in under a year. And I started to think about all the changes that were expected of me as a wife. And suddenly, changing my last name to his AND changing…
It really happened because of a wedding invitation. It was beautiful. With their Hebrew names printed below their English ones and the script of Ani L’Dodi, v’Dodi Li on the top. I realized something in that. When J and I got married, I’d be taking that opportunity away from him. His childhood rabbi wouldn’t be able to perform the service, he’d never have his Hebrew name on his wedding invitation. And it was because of me. Since we had already found…
It all started back in 2011, when he first proposed. We were in college, barely knew each other, post house party Taco Bell proposal kinda night. Fast forward six years later and he’s proposed for real this time and we’re just four short months away from our wedding. J is Jewish. I was raised a Catholic in an Irish-Italian household. I noticed something in the past six years. There’s a lot of articles out there for interfaith couples, particularly Christian-Jewish…