Our friends at STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal) issued an interesting press release today on their new survey of rabbis’ attitudes. Over 100 rabbis who are participating in STAR’s programs responded to questions about their goals and views of the future as the Jewish New Year begins. Of particular interest to us: “The vast majority
Should High Holiday Tickets Be Free?
Sue Fishkoff, the JTA correspondent who focuses on Jewish identity and affiliation, has just launched a new blog. Her first entry raises the question whether High Holiday tickets should be free. I posted this response: I understand both sides of this issue. As a former synagogue president, I know what it costs to run a
Let’s Encourage the Jewish Journeys of Interfaith Families
July 13, 2006 The planned theme of the Renaissance Pillar programming at the GA is “Jewish journeys.” Improving programs at the steps along life’s paths that can reinforce Jewish identity and continuity — Jewish camping, day schools, Israel trips, etc. — will be emphasized. No matter how much we strengthen and improve these very worthwhile
Negotiation and Accommodation in Mixed Marriages: An Interview with Edmund Case, Publisher of InterfaithFamily.com in Aufbau
July 2006 This article first appeared in Aufbau, the German-Jewish newspaper, and was reprinted with permission. “Mixed-marriage households can raise their children as Jews, and the Jewish community should be more open towards them,” says Edmund Case, publisher of InterfaithFamily.com, an online magazine on interfaith issues. Case deals with intermarriage on a daily basis, not
The Next Big Thing is Now: Outreach to the Intermarried
March 2006 In February 2006 the New Jersey Jewish News began a yearlong community dialogue called “The Next Big Think.” Editor Andrew Silow-Carroll wrote that the movements and causes that inspired Jews in the past–Zionism, absorption of Jewish immigrants in America and Israel, the fight against anti-Semitism, the redemption of Jewish captives the world over–had
Letter to the Editor of the Jewish Week: Mean-Spirited Approach
Reprinted with permission from the February 10, 2006 issue of the New York Jewish Week. In January 2006, The New York Jewish Week published an op-ed by Steven Bayme and Jack Wertheimer, Revisiting and Promoting Conversion. This letter to the editor was published in response. An interfaith couple is married by a rabbi and joins a
Imagine… It’s Chrismukkah Time Again!
December 2005 Ron Gompertz, founder of Chrismukkah.com, responds to Ed Case “Nobody’s ever tried the peace thing. We are selling it like soap.” – John Lennon, 1969 Last year, Edmund Case wrote an editorial in InterfaithFamily.com headlined “Chrismukkah is a Bad Idea.” In his commentary, Case wrote, “The concept of a holiday that combines Hanukkah
What’s In a Name?
January 2005 I was intermarried for thirty years, until my wife converted to Judaism in October 2004. Both of our children, now twenty-six and twenty-two, have strong Jewish identities, but from the way we marked their births, it might not have looked like that would be the likely result. When Emily was born, my wife and
“Chrismukkah” is a Bad Idea
December 2004 Sorry to be a “grinch” or a “scrooge,” but “Chrismukkah” is a bad idea. First depicted last December on the hit Fox TV show “The O.C.,” picked up by entrepreneurs selling “Chrismukkah” greeting cards, and featured again on “The O.C.” last week, “Chrismukkah” has been all the rage this December, with media coverage
Social Science and the Intermarriage Debate
An edited version of this article was first published in The New York Jewish Week in 2004. Since the National Jewish Population Survey confirmed the continuing high rate of intermarriage, it’s been quiet on the “outreach” vs. “in-reach” front. The Jewish In-Marriage Initiative is slowly becoming active. No new money has been added to the