How Can I Help My Non-Jewish Partner Feel Comfortable in a Synagogue or at a Service?
with Rabbi Marvin Goodman
In this new column, Bay Area experts will answer your questions about family life and relationships between people of different faiths. If you have a question for our experts, please email us at bridges@sfjcf.org.
Feeling comfortable in a synagogue doesn’t come with Jewish genes. Like a first day in a new job or any new or different experience, it takes more than once to begin to reach a level of comfort.
When you decide that you’re going to introduce your partner to the synagogue, it’s important to prepare yourselves for the visit. You may feel at home at the congregation, but don’t expect your partner to feel the same way, even if he or she knows other members. And if you’re not at ease, that will add to the anxiety.
Here are some things you can do to make visiting a synagogue a positive experience for both of you... [continued]
Jewish Humor?
Funny You Should Ask
In the cold, dark days of February, a little comic relief is in order. Comic and writer Fred Raker wrote this story for Bridges.
Jewish telegram: “Begin worrying. Details to follow.”
Groucho Marx once joked that he would never belong to any club that would have him as a member. That’s a very funny line. It’s also very Jewish. Why? Because it’s self-deprecating. Does that mean that all Jewish jokes are self-deprecating? Of course not. But psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that many Jewish jokes contain that critical component. “I don’t know whether there are many other instances of a people making fun to such a degree of its own character,” he wrote... [continued] |
