Web Magazine
March 22, 2007
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Dear friend,
The "December dilemma" is better known, but Passover and Easter are not without conflict for interfaith families. Unlike Christmas, which typically falls after Hanukkah, Easter usually falls during Passover, which can create touchy situations when a Passover-observant family wants to go to a Christian family's home for Easter dinner. Passover and Easter are also both very religious holidays, not as easily secularized as Christmas or Hanukkah. Call the conflict the "Spring Situation." In the new issue of our Web Magazine on Passover and Easter , we hear from interfaith couples on how they negotiate the two holidays.
We polled more than 680 people, including 236 in interfaith relationships who are raising their children Jewish. Find out how other couples are balancing their celebrations of Passover and Easter in What We Learned from the 2007 Passover/Easter Survey. (Also in PDF format .)
Faye Rapoport DesPres and her non-Jewish boyfriend invited their parents over for Passover. And forgot to defrost the turkey, in Our First Seder .
Every Easter Rebecca Gopoian and her Christian husband argue about faith, in If He Believes in God, Will He Leave Me Someday?
Kia Silverman isn't Christian but she grew up celebrating Christmas and Easter. Now that she's raising her children in her husband's Jewish faith, she's trying to figure out how to balance the spring holidays, in A Sticky Situation .
Abby Spotts, meanwhile, grew up in an observant Conservative home. Passover meant cleaning the house, blocking off certain cabinets and removing all leavened bread from of the house. With her Catholic husband, she doesn't go so far, but she's Making Passover Work in An Interfaith Home .
Both of Tom Friedland's kids are intermarried, but their spouses have very different attitudes about attending the seder. Hear more in The Reluctant Son-in-Law .
Recipes
Judith van Praag, the child of a non-Jewish mom and a Jewish dad, shares recipes from the "carbohydrate heaven" Passover meals of her youth, including gremchelich, thick pancakes of matzah brei with raisins, almonds and candied ginger .
From Our Article Archive
Jayne Cohen shares more recipes, including smoked whitefish gefilte fish with lemon-horseradish sauce, chicken soup with asparagus and shiitakes and roasted fennel matzah balls and mango and sour cherry macaroon crumble. Read more .
Special Report
Ever wonder why traditional Judaism recognizes only the children of Jewish mothers as Jewish? So did J.R. Wilheim, whose mother wasn't Jewish. After years of research into the Bible, rabbinical commentary and social history, he came to a conclusion: he has no idea. Learn what he found in the provocative The Truth About Matrilineal Descent .
Arts and Entertainment
In the newest installment of Interfaith Celebrities , Nate Bloom looks at interfaith baseball players--including promising soph Ian Kinsler--and Michael Chiklis ("The Shield," "The Commish") and his Jewish wife.
Books
A meditating mom reviews the Haggadah for Jews & Buddhists in The Four Questions Meet the Four Noble Truths .
Feeling lost at the seder? Jewish Holidays 101 gives a good foundation for understanding Judaism's sometimes mysterious rituals.
What's New on the Blogs
On the IFF Network Blog, we recently wrote about a Sunday school where the parents learn as much as the kids and a Lebanese-Jewish romance .
On the Weddings Blog, Bryan can't figure out whether to make his Christian son go to a seder--or let him play t-ball .
Coming Next
Our next issue, on Death and Mourning, will be published April 10.
Sincerely,
 
Micah Sachs, Online Managing Editor
Write for Us!
We're looking for writers on the following topics:
We're also looking for a couple willing to be interviewed about relationship issues for a 10-minute audio interview.
Interested in any of these topics? Contact Web Magazine Editor Ronnie Friedland at editor@interfaithfamily.com .
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