How Times Have Changed On January 11 I spoke at Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara CA for the second time – the first was in December 2005. I took the opportunity to reflect on what’s changed about interfaith family inclusion over the past twenty years – and what work remains to be done. You
Addressing Antisemitism – a Personal Note, and the Importance of Inclusion As usual in December, there’s a lot to report on about interfaith family inclusion. This year, it’s important to start with how that relates to antisemitism. The month began with a report that Senator Cory Booker had married a Jewish woman. At the time,
Laura Lauder and Embark eJP ran an important interview of philanthropist Laura Lauder about the Embark program she launched and supports, now as part of Mem Global. The goal of Embark is “to have [non-Jewish partners] feel comfortable in their identity as a parent of Jewish children and as a member of a Jewish household.
Today’s eJewishPhilanthropy Op-ed: What Research Reveals About Interfaith Families’ Feelings of Belonging For the first time ever, we held this email newsletter beyond the end of the month, so that we could tell you that today, eJewishPhilanthropy published our op-ed, Making Interfaith Families a Valued Part of Jewish Communities. We’ve been working for many months
More Conservative News eJewishPhilanthropy has focused on one aspect of interfaith family inclusion, that relating to the Conservative movement, this month. Adam Pollack and Sophie Mortman of 18Doors had an oped, “Conservative rabbis are already engaging interfaith families, with or without the movement.” They report that many Conservative rabbis want to be inclusive of interfaith
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