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January 2007
Regional News
East Bay Although the East and South Bay Jewish communities did not participate in the 2004 Jewish Community Study, many of the findings can be applied to these communities. No doubt interfaith marriage has grown at approximately the same rate; the number of families choosing to raise their children as Jews also is similar. While I have enjoyed pouring over the statistics with my colleagues, I have found it more meaningful to hear the real-life stories that people bring to me. I am one of the luckiest people in the world, as everyday I go to work with the possibility of being surprised. Who will call? What interesting twist will they bring to me? Here in the Bay Area we are a rich and varied community. Are you a pagan who was raised as a Christian and now married to a culturally-identified Jew? Or are you the child of an interfaith couple who identifies as a Jew married to another child of an interfaith family who identifies as a Christian? Are you halachically Jewish (your mother is the Jewish parent) and struggling with your spiritual leaning towards a Christian identity? Or is your dad the Jewish parent and you’re struggling with learning about Judaism and finding a way in after having been told you’re not “really” Jewish? Maybe you’re Hindu and dating a religious Jew. Or neither of you really cared about religion until the baby was born? Did you take your daughter to her cousin’s bat mitzvah and now she suddenly wants to be Jewis? Or maybe it was your son and he’s not even circumcised! Contact me at dawn@jfed.org or (510) 839-2900 x347 or (925) 943-1484. Dawn Kepler « Previous Article | Back to Newsletter | Next Article »  |
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