The news this summer has felt unrelentingly bad. This comment caught my eye, by Mayor Jacob Frey, after the awful shootings in Minneapolis, talking about his Jewish engagement with the Forward: “There’s also not just a beautiful acceptance – but a kind of hospitality of inclusivity that is entrenched in the fabric of being a
As you know, the Center’s work addresses interfaith family inclusion. But it is difficult to focus these days on anything other than the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. While these issues are of vastly different scale, there is a commonality: othering. The othering of interfaith families and partners from different faith backgrounds leaves many to feel
This month’s newsletter is early because I’m traveling the rest of June – we’re taking our grandson for a delayed, post-bar mitzvah trip – you can read about his bar mitzvah here. It was shortly after October 7; it feels like the news in this country and around Israel has been terribly challenging ever since.
Jewish Belonging Summit Amid the horrible news this month, I was glad to participate in the first Jewish Belonging Summit sponsored by the JFNA’s Center for Jewish Belonging and the SRE Network. The Center’s Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein and SRE’s Rachel Gildiner were interviewed by eJP before the summit and afterwards wrote “Belonging cannot wait” for
There’s a lot to report this month: promising feelings of inclusion from a new program for interfaith couples; a great discussion of what’s involved in feeling belonging; new Hebrew school research that reflects that feeling unwelcoming is an obstacle; a Conservative rabbi advocates for officiation; a patrilineal teen’s determination to be recognized; the UK progressive
A Remarkable Orthodox Rabbi’s Remarkable Essay I’m always glad to draw attention to prominent Jewish leaders when they speak positively about interfaith families. This essay, by an Orthodox rabbi, in the National Catholic Reporter of all places, is just remarkable: “I’m a rabbi raised by a Christian mother. We need religious diversity now more than
A New CEO for 18Doors! I was excited to see 18Doors’ announcement, picked up in the Atlanta Jewish Times, that Mike Wise, a very experienced Jewish professional, most recently co-founder of Honeymoon Israel, is their new CEO. I loved what Mike is quoted as saying: With more than a 75 percent interfaith marriage rate among
I was very excited when I heard about Rabbi Shai Held’s book, Judaism Is About Love. I was eager to see how the book would address love between Jews and partners from other faith backgrounds. I was disappointed to find that it doesn’t. Nevertheless, the book is – I don’t know what adjectives best describe
After all the December holiday media buzz, and with January attention focused on distressing events here and in Israel, there was little interfaith family inclusion news to report – until this week. Jewish Families Today This past Monday, eJewishPhilanthropy reported that Rosov Consulting released an important qualitative study, Jewish Families Today. The study focused on
December has always been the biggest month for interfaith families. But in the twenty-five years I’ve worked in the field, even in the couple when Hanukkah and Christmas overlapped, there’s never been as much coverage as this year – in mainstream sources like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the