Rumors continue to swirl regarding the upcoming nuptials of Chelsea Clinton and her fiancé Marc Mezvinsky. When they announced their engagement last year, they said they wanted a summer wedding. But what kind of wedding will this be? Clinton is a Methodist and Mezvinsky is Jewish. As an article in the Associated Press recently asked, “Is a Jewish wedding ahead for Chelsea Clinton?”

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Last week, Julie Wiener reported on an intermarriage workshop that took place at the Jewish Theological Seminary. The workshop was touted as noteworthy because it marked the first time the school had sanctioned an event where students could come together and discuss issues surrounding intermarriage and how they impact the Jewish community (although JOI’s exec Rabbi Kerry Olitzky has presented to the students on the subject several times over the past few years). In response to the piece, JTS chancellor Arnold Eisen wrote a letter to the (New York) Jewish Week clarifying the school’s “policy on the matter of outreach to intermarried families.”

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There is a simple way to make synagogues “sacred and vital,” said Dr. Ron Wolfson in the New Jersey Jewish News. “Congregations can start by making sure everyone who walks in the door is warmly greeted.”

Though it sounds easy, this first step is too often overlooked. That moment when someone – especially a newcomer – walks through our doors is an opportunity to establish a lasting connection. So important is that experience for both the synagogue and the visitor, Dr. Wolfson, a professor at the American Jewish University, now devotes much of his time to helping synagogues realize the power of welcoming. As president of Synagogue 3000, an organization that aims to make synagogues compelling moral and spiritual centers for the twenty-first century, he helps challenge “the existing assumptions of synagogue life in North America.” Most notably, this means a successful synagogue is not one that merely offers more programs, but instead develops a deeper relationship with their members. This begins with a warm welcome.

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To what extent can technology become a tool for Jewish education before it becomes a mere distraction? That, said Julie Wiener in the (New York) Jewish Week, is a question many in the Jewish community—including JOI—have been struggling with more and more over the last few years, especially in terms of reaching those on the periphery of the Jewish community, such as intermarried families, children of intermarriage and unaffiliated Jews. But a new online game, JLand, is trying to find that right balance and offer these families a low barrier—and enjoyable—entry point into the Jewish community.

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In generations past, when Jewish parents discovered that their child was planning on marrying someone of another religious background, it was not uncommon for those parents to sit shiva, or mourn the loss of their child. This attitude was immortalized for many on stage and screen in “Fiddler on the Roof,” when Tevye the milkman discovers that his daughter, Chava, has eloped with a Christian. But, wonders Rabbi Joshua Hammerman in the (New York) Jewish Week, would Tevye respond the same way today? Do Jews even still mourn intermarriage in this way?

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Over the past few years, the Conservative movement’s rigid stance on intermarriage has gradually softened. While rabbis are still forbidden from officiating at interfaith weddings, many Conservative synagogues now allow the non-Jewish spouse to take part in life-cycle events like a bar or bat mitzvah, or serve in leadership roles. The reasoning is that with more congregants personally touched by intermarriage – either involved in one or the parents of children who have intermarried – more should be done to include interfaith couples in synagogue life. This, according to Julie Wiener in the (New York) Jewish Week, is what led the Jewish Theological Seminary to host a first-of-its-kind workshop “sensitizing students to issues of intermarriage and changing demographics.”

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

This week I attended Mosaic, our local Jewish Federation’s Women’s Division annual luncheon. I have been the past four years—while I am not a member of the sponsoring organizations (and shhh, don’t tell anyone—not Jewish). This year’s speaker was Iris Krasnow, a journalist and writer. All of you with mothers, spouses, and/or children should run out right now and get her books, and go see her speak if you can. But maybe that’s for another blog.

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

Lately I have been thinking about how my life has shifted to a different calendar than the one I knew as a child. I remember my mom’s calendar on the refrigerator, with scribbles of schedules every day of the week; the eagerly anticipated Advent calendar at Christmas; the seemingly endless supply of airplane-themed calendars that my dad, an aviation historian, delighted in bestowing on his less than thrilled offspring. If there were any Jewish holidays on our many calendars, they existed only in polite small type at the bottom of the squares. My family celebrated Christian holidays out of habit and an appetite for chocolate, rather than for religious reasons. The calendar revolved around the academic year and family vacations (Colorado!! in red ink); our various enthusiams and hobbies (Piano recital! Soccer practice! Air show!) and whatever time my mother could squeeze in for herself (Walk dog!). My mom habitually punctuated all activities with exclamation points, and I never understood why, until I became the keeper of our family calendar. It’s the equivalent of mental coffee–keep going!!!

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In a recent speech, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested—as many have before him—that intermarriage and assimilation are one in the same, and as such they are today’s greatest threat to Jewish identity. He called them toll-takers of Jewish numbers, and in the same breath implied intermarriage and assimilation are just as bad for the Jewish people as the Holocaust.

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Many in the Jewish community worry about the level of unaffiliated in our midst, especially among the younger generation. Synagogue memberships are down, as are memberships in Jewish institutions that used to be the center of the Jewish community. But does choosing not to affiliate mean this younger generation is not interested in religion? A few recent polls suggest just the opposite. While younger generations are less affiliated, they may actually be “more spiritually thirsty than older generations.”

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

Food has been on my mind a lot recently. How to eat for good health, educate my kids about food, keep my weight at a healthy level, and most importantly, eat, eat, eat. I love to cook, and I love to eat! Our family shares this “live to eat” mentality, and cooking and family dinnertime is a don’t-miss event in our house.

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

A bit more than a decade later, I’m still trying to figure out what we’re doing for Passover, with whom, and how we’re doing it. Trying to raise Jews (not having been raised one myself) I feel like the bar’s a lot higher for me. My husband and his family try to assure me otherwise. Nevertheless, I still feel like it falls primarily to me to instill in my daughters why we do what we do.

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Jewish interfaith couples in Cleveland now have a few more options when looking for a rabbi to officiate at their wedding. According to the Cleveland Jewish News, Rabbis Richard Block and Roger Klein, both of The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, have recently decided “that they will now officiate at weddings of some interfaith couples.” The decision came about organically, they said, when they realized that refusing to officiate undermined their ability to “help create and strengthen Jewish families and to assure a vigorous, expansive and sturdy Jewish future.”

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

My son became a Bar Mitzvah this past year. Why is that of significance to Passover? He’s usually the youngest. Hes been the youngest at both his Godmothers Seder table and ours for years now. Ever since he was able to ask the 4 Questions, he has been asking them beautifully, and thats been quite a while. Personally, I love hearing him, he has a beautiful voice.

Last year he begged me. Do I have to? I’m so tired of it! Of course, I told him, until you’re 99 if you are the youngest! He snarled at me, and I laughed.

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

When my husband and I were engaged and I was interested in learning more about practicing Judaism, I attended a Seder workshop which was sponsored by a synagogue. The workshop was intended for folks who were leading a Seder for the first time or who wanted to “spice up” their usual Seder.

Before I showed up, I was pretty concerned that everybody there would immediately know I wasn’t “one of them” and wonder why I was there. I anticipated that if they knew that I was there because I was trying to redeem myself as a schiksa it’d only be worse. Despite my anxieties, I mustered up my courage and think I managed not to wince when I introduced myself as Christine (In my honest opinion, among the worst names for somebody marrying a Jew).

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On a daily basis, we highlight and comment on stories or events related to creating an open and welcoming Jewish community. In thousands of blog entries, we have touched on any and every subject that has impacted our community, for better or for worse. After five years of blogging, we still find ourselves inspired by the extraordinary steps many are willing to take in the name of inclusion. A recent story in the New Jersey Jewish News about a bar mitzvah perfectly captured this sense of awe.

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Although Valentine’s Day is not a Jewish holiday, it is celebrated in one way or another by many. For this reason, JTA columnist Edmon J. Rodman wrote a Valentines Day article offering an explanation as to why so many in the Jewish community date and marry people of other religious backgrounds. Jewish people, it seems, are just too darn attractive. Jewish actors were recently named to the top of two different “desirability” lists (Emmanuelle Chriqui in Askmen.com and Jake Gyllenhaal in People Magazine), and our history is filled with stories of irrepressible urges towards Jews (Potiphar and Joseph, King Ahasuerus and Esther).

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

Passover is a totally different holiday than anything I was used to celebrating growing up Catholic. My first Passover five years ago was the start of making this our biggest Jewish tradition, and we really like it. I think my favorite part about it is the fact that it is ordered chaos. I have never been to anything like it! Here’s what I mean. The very word seder means order (right? Hey, I’m still learning here!). But the very order of evening’s events seems to give rise to a lot of freedom, mix in the kids, and it’s organized chaos. But in a good way! Here are some of the ordered chaos things I have noticed at seders I have attended or hosted.

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Birthright Israel NEXT, the alumni arm of Birthright Israel, has created a digital magazine called Alef: The Next Conversation. The purpose of the magazine is to explore Jewish identity through media such as essays, interviews, photos, poems, and music. In the most recent issue, there is an interesting discussion about dating with two young Jewish women (Emily and Sara), both of whom are children of intermarriage.

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Below is the latest entry in the “Preparing for Passover” Blog written by participants in JOI’s Mothers Circle Program:

Two months.

On Friday I brought my daughter to the airport as she headed back to college, that’s when I realized that Passover is just about two months away.

Whew! I thought, I’m not really up to start thinking about another holiday quite yet. I feel like I just got through New Year’s, Christmas, Chanukah – and well, it was my son’s Bar Mitzvah, that’s really what I’m recovering from.

Then reality caught up with me. Two months is not that long.

“Don’t worry, dude,” my daughter said to her younger brother, “I’ll be back in a few weeks for Passover. You won’t even have time to miss me.”

She’s right; it really isn’t that far away.

After 22 years of marriage, I have learned that the moment it occurs to me that there’s a holiday approaching, I need to jump on it and start to get things ready! And Passover requires the greatest forethought.

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