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electronic newsletter 6-9-09
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Table of Contents
Ask your friends to subscribe to our eNewsletter--the more people we reach, the better!
Ways You Can Get Involved
Looking for a rabbi or cantor for your interfaith wedding? We have a database of more than 270 rabbis and cantors throughout the U.S. and Canada.
If what we do helps you or others you care about, please make a tax-deductible charitable contribution in support of our work.
Connections In Your Area--Featured Events
Ruth Group
June 10, 12 p.m.
At the Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, the Ruth Group is for any woman not born Jewish who is connected to Judaism in some way.
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June 9, 2009
Dear Friend,
The school year is winding down, and we're getting ready for summer camp. Because of the economic situation, there were spaces available in a lot of the camps in my area until a lot later in the year than usual. It may not be too late to give your child an awesome Jewish camp experience. If it's their first one, you may be able to get help with the cost.
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 Jews of Color
Children of interfaith families, adoptees, Jews by choice and their children--about two percent of the U.S. Jewish population is Asian. Hedi Molnar reports on Developing a Vision of the Future of Asian-Jewish Families.
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 Adult Children of Interfaith Marriage
Margaret Wilson doesn't have a Jewish name or a Jewish appearance, but she's always been a rebel and she's not afraid to tell people, Yes, I'm Jewish!
Charming and rhyming on stage, Greg Aguele describes his own awakening pride in his Jewish identity, in Birthright Israel Next Monologues: Greg Aguele.
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 Opportunities
If you are sending your child to a Jewish overnight camp for the first time, your family might be eligible for a scholarship. Two Boston area camps contacted us to publicize this opportunity specifically to children of interfaith families: JCC Maccabi Camp Kingswood, which has $1000 First-Time Campership Grants and some other funding opportunities and Camp Tel Noar which is offering First Time Campership Grants of $500 and $250. The Jewish camp in your area may have funds available for you through The Foundation for Jewish Camp. A lot of families were going to skip camp this year because of the economic downturn, so there may still be spaces available.
We have another, more cerebral opportunity for you--a webinar to discuss the recent book Still Jewish: A History of Women and Intermarriage in America with its author, Keren McGinity, and sociologist Steven M. Cohen. The webinar is cosponsored by the Jewish Women's Archive and The Berman Jewish Policy Archive at New York University and will be held Monday, June 22, from 3 to 4:30 Eastern Daylight Time. Register online to participate; all are welcome.
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 Bar and Bat Mitzvah
Growing up in an interfaith family made Esther Shchory feel like an outsider. As an adult she got what she'd yearned for, a Bat Mitzvah After All These Years.
Rabbi Daniel Siegel writes of the spiritual transformation he underwent as a rabbi working with interfaith families in Of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and Non-Jewish Parents.
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 Conversion
Aliza Hausman, who chose Orthodox Judaism years before she met her husband, has interesting insights in her review of Sally Srok Friedes' memoir of her Reform conversion after years in an interfaith marriage, Welcoming the New Jew.
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 Divorce
In Divorce, Interfaith Style, Margery Rose-Clapp has the perspective of decades, but still wonders, what went wrong? Was it religion?
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 Arts and Entertainment
Maya Rudolph wants the casting directors who thought she was "too weird looking" to open their eyes now--she's in a new movie, as Nate Bloom relates in Interfaith Celebrities: Rudolph Takes a Trip. |
 New on the Blogs
On IFF's wedding blog, The Hitch, Alx Block wrote his last post before the big day, I Have Warm Feet.
I blogged about the new Jewish American Girl doll, the state of same-sex marriage and gay rights in America and statistics on Jewish and African-American attitudes toward intermarriage.
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 If you have a Facebook account, we'd be thrilled if you followed our IFF fan page. We're up to 343 fans. We feel the love!
Sincerely,
 
Ruth Abrams, Managing Editor
Write for Us!
We're looking for writers on the following topics:
- It's not really an interfaith family, because ...
- Going to Israel
- That was a CRAZY wedding!
- Who officiated at my wedding and why
- Atlanta-area writers from interfaith families
- Chicago-area writers from interfaith families
- Hey you, wanna fight? Conflict in an interfaith family
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InterfaithFamily.com | P.O. Box 428, Newton, MA 02464 | 617 581 6860 | network@interfaithfamily.com
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A member of the Jewish clergy who leads a congregation in songful prayer. ("Hazzan" in Hebrew.)
Hebrew for "my master," the term refers to a spiritual leader and teacher of Torah. Often, but not always, a rabbi is the leader of a synagogue congregation.
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