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…
J and I married four months ago and we are not ready for a child. Even though J and I are not having children now, we felt that we could still be prepared by doing genetic testing. I actually did my test through JScreen before our wedding. I won my test through the Jewish parenting website Kveller. Not all of their articles apply to me right now, there are great writers and really great content overall on that site. JScreen mailed me a full kit. I…
I had a whole post written about this year’s Yom Kippur experience — how I assumed it would go. Spoiler alert: it was rough. I went to Kol Nidre services. Then I went to work where I had the hardest Yom Kippur of my life since I was, you know, actually working and not eating or drinking. Broke fast in the comfort of an edit room with all my coworkers during a last-minute meeting. None of them were fasting. All…
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…
We had an exciting time this weekend since it was our first wedding as married people! Plus we got a side trip to the aquarium! It’s meant I’ve been spending a lot of time with my Jewish side. While I love them I think sometimes they forget we’re an interfaith couple. In the past, I would have taken this as a compliment, like I’m passing as the thing I want to be. But after everything we’ve been through I want to…
I’ve decided to invest more time into my writing and working on here. So as you can see Latkes and Lasagna got a little bit (ok a lot a bit) of a facelift! Thanks to Little Web Writing Hood for an absolutely fantastic look and help with everything! All my old blog posts will be migrating on over! I’m excited to continue on this journey! So get ready for some new posts and writing!…
I very much enjoy Jewish holidays. It actually pains me that my life my fall is my busiest time at work AND not everyone has it off which means if I take it off I continually have this conversation: Where were you? It was Rosh Hashanah. Oh, you’re Jewish? No, my partner is. So why do you celebrate? An then I get to explain that when someone we loves celebrates something different than us, we’re there to support them because that’s…
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…
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…
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…