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Illustrative: A 2011 marriage ceremony of an interfaith couple from Boston. (Courtesy Jared and Laurie Berezin)
JTA Years ago, Jodi Bromberg met a woman at a Jewish event who said she had to call 65 rabbis before she found one who would officiate at her wedding to her non-Jewish husband.
It was a story Bromberg understood. Bromberg’s wife is Catholic, and earlier in their marriage “it was a struggle,” she said, to find a synagogue that was the right fit for their family.
Sixteen years after getting together with her wife, Bromberg hasn’t left Judaism. Her family is active in their nondenominational Massachusetts synagogue, and Bromberg is the CEO of 18Doors, an organization that helps interfaith families find a place in Jewish life. She knows, though, that there are other families like hers who gave up on trying to fit into a Jewish community.
Most children of intermarriage are being raised Jewish. Their parents hope Jewish institutions notice. (Olga Efimova/EyeEm)
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(JTA) Years ago, Jodi Bromberg met a woman at a Jewish event who said she had to call 65 rabbis before she found one who would officiate at her wedding to her non-Jewish husband.
It was a story Bromberg understood. Bromberg’s wife is Catholic, and earlier in their marriage “it was a struggle,” she said, to find a synagogue that was the right fit for their family.
Sixteen years after getting together with her wife, Bromberg hasn’t left Judaism. Her family is active in their nondenominational Massachusetts synagogue, and Bromberg is the CEO of 18Doors, an organization that helps interfaith families find a place in Jewish life. She knows, though, that there are other families like hers who gave up on trying to fit into a Jewish community.
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I want to acknowledge that I have a somewhat irrational interest in some might say obsession with the Second Stepdaughter.
I trace it to the fact that I was on a family vacation when Joe Biden announced in August that Kamala Harris would be his running-mate. I have four college-age nieces and nephews so naturally we were interested in Ella Emhoff, who is 21 and a student at Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. Opening Instagram, we were instantly enchanted by her vibrant feed, where she posts her unusual hand-knit creations, struts her tattoos and generally exudes the perfect balance of coolness and warmth.
Judging by the current contents of her apartment, Lauren Schreiber Sasaki is a woman who loves nothing more than celebrating Christmas at home.
On the mantel, a “Merry Christmas” garland hangs beneath a large collection of menorahs. An advent calendar shares a wall with several Magen David ornaments. Atop the coffee table stands the
pièce de rèsistance: a miniature Christmas tree, laden with ornaments and stationed next to a candle that smells like “Jewish Christmas.” (Buttered popcorn with notes of Chinese takeout, if you were wondering.)
In fact, this is all new for Schreiber Sasaki, 36, who runs Jewish&, a program for interfaith families at Toronto’s Miles Nadal Jewish Community Center. Since childhood, she’s felt a little resentful of the onslaught of enforced cheer that comes with Christmas. Now, as one-half of an interfaith couple and the mother of two young children, she worries that the “shiny, sparkly, sugary” nature of Christmas celebrations overshadow