In an unfortunate convergence, some of the leading Jewish journalists have almost simultaneously published more counter-productive negative messages about intermarriage. The first piece is by Gary Rosenblatt of the New York Jewish Week. Here is the letter to the editor I just submitted: I applaud Rabbi Rick Jacobs’ comments at the URJ Biennial and to
Thank You and Good Luck to Jennifer Gorovitz
We were sorry to learn that Jennifer Gorovitz will be stepping down as CEO of the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund. Most of the commentary has focused appropriately on the small number of women who have lead federations – Jennifer was the first woman to head a large city Federation in North
He Will Be Missed: Remembering Edgar M. Bronfman, Sr.
All of us at InterfaithFamily are mourning the loss of Edgar Bronfman, who died last night. Edgar had a powerful wonderful personal impact on our organization. He was a true pioneer and visionary for the cause of engaging interfaith families in Jewish life and community. As early as 2004, we reprinted an article from the
We’re Expanding to Boston!
We are very pleased to announce that, thanks to a generous new grant partnership with Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, InterfaithFamily will be launching InterfaithFamily/Boston this fall. This will be our fourth InterfaithFamily/Your Community, joining Chicago, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay Area in our growing network of local community programs. InterfaithFamily/Boston will have a
Opening the Gates
Leading up to and during my vacation there have been three big intermarriage stories in the media. They all revolve around whether, and how, Jewish communities are going to open their gates and draw in interfaith couples and families. First came a JTA story by Uriel Heilman, The War Against Intermarriage Has Been Lost. Now
Embrace Gay Married Jews But Not Intermarried Jews? I Don’t Think So
There is a pretty offensive article on the Forward today, Why Intermarriage Poses Threat to Jewish Life – But Gay Marriage Doesn’t. It’s by Yoel Finkelman, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and like most Israeli commentators, he doesn’t understand liberal Jewish life and community in the US. Finkelman says that liberal American Jewry
More on Ordaining Intermarried Rabbis
Kudos to Paul Golin, associate executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, for a powerful contribution to the debate over ordaining intermarried rabbis: What Intermarried Rabbis Can Teach Us. Building on Rabbi Ellen Lippman’s inter-partnered rabbi’s perspective, that we’ve blogged about before, Paul adds his own very important perspective: Rabbis with nontraditional families like my
A Plea to Ordain Intermarried Rabbis
Ellen Lippman, rabbi of Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, has an important contribution in today’s Forward to the debate about admitting and ordaining as rabbis people in interfaith relationships, an issue we’ve blogged about frequently. In an “open letter” to her alma mater, Hebrew Union College, Rabbi Lippman, who is partnered with a person who is
What Chelsea Clinton Loves About Judaism
There is a great short podcast on the Jewish United Fund’s website with an interview of Chelsea Clinton, who spoke at the Women’s Division Spring Event 2013. Cindy Sher, the terrific editor of the JUF News, makes a great initial comment: “you became a member of the extended Jewish family when you married your husband
Are Interfaith Families Included in Inclusive Jewish Philanthropy?
I wrote a piece for eJewishPhilanthropy that was published today. It’s wonderful to see the attention that Jewish philanthropists are giving to inclusion of Jews with disabilities and LGBT Jews, but I can’t help asking: Are Interfaith Families Included in Inclusive Philanthropy? I hope to get some positive answers! This post originally appeared on www.interfaithfamily.com