Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Seeking Essays From Women in Interfaith Relationships

When the Forward published my essay on being in an interfaith relationship last year, I could never have predicted that I would eventually decide to put together an entire anthology of essays by women in Jewish interfaith relationships. Before I wrote my essay, I had carried ideas for it in my head for a long time, and I imagine, many other women carry around such narratives, too. When my relationship began, more than a year ago, I was flooded with all kinds of emotions, typical of any new relationship. But there was also another layer of pure bewilderment. After all, I had never before been in an interfaith relationship; I had never planned to be in one; I was specifically trying not to be in one.

In recent months, I’ve drawn on the support of women who also happened to be writers and who were also in interfaith relationships or marriage; and I’ve drawn on the rich content on sites like interfaithfamily.com and on Julie Weiner’s excellent “In the Mix” blog, based on her column of the same name. Books like “Still Jewish” (NYU Press) by Keren McGinity, and “Double or Nothing” (Brandeis University Press) by Sylvia Barack Fishman provided a sociological and historical perspective.

The idea for an anthology slowly brewed over time. Ultimately, I felt strongly that there should be a book of essays by women in Jewish interfaith relationships. The next, immediate thought was: it probably already exists. The closest collection published is called “Half/Life: Jew-ish Tales from Inter-faith Homes” (Soft Skull Press) edited by Laurel Snyder, which features beautifully written personal stories by adult children of intermarriage. In addition, there are memoirs on the topic, along with plenty of guides to plan your interfaith wedding or to learn how to be a grandparent to interfaith grandchildren. These all serve their purpose and contribute to the widening of the conversation; but I feel that women, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who are or have been involved with interfaith relationships, need to have their voices heard on this topic.

I have already collected a wide range of incredible essays — including one from a lesbian mom examining the paradox of applying the matrilineal principle in a same-sex intermarriage; another from an African-American woman who ruminates on a racist incident that occurred among her Jewish in-laws, and another still from an intermarried rabbinical student who takes the lead in transmitting Jewish culture in her family.

But I’m looking to bring more stories into the mix, and invite you to submit your essays to me. Guidelines for submission can be found here, and you can email me your essays at [email protected] by July 1, 2010.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.