How Do You Decide in Which Religion to Raise the Kids?
with Rosanne Leavitt
In this new column, Bay Area experts will deal with 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.
The most important thing is to begin the conversation.
I suggest you each begin by considering what your religion means to you and what you want to pass on to your children. Make lists and then share them with each other. Discuss with your partner how you want your children to be raised religiously and what observances would look like in your family life. After you have shared your thoughts with each other, you can begin the process of figuring out how the two of you can come to some resolution that will work for both of you... [continued]
Power and Passion in Interfaith Relationships
by Carla Haimowitz
This article has been reprinted with permission from www.interfaithfamly.com.
Many rabbis and other Jewish people view interfaith relationships as a stepping down from Jewish-Jewish relationships, as a kind of betrayal of the group. From the perspective of an oppressed minority group, that position is understandable, as to be "in bed with" the oppressive majority seems like a sell-out of some kind. Yet it is also difficult to understand the failure of tenderness and nurturing of interfaith relationships by some rabbis and Jewish people. Each Passover Jews are reminded to befriend the stranger, to feel that it is we who are coming out of the narrow straits of oppression. As I see it, interfaith relationships represent some of the essence of Judaism – an open mind and an open heart in action... [continued] |
