Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s research, analysis and essay on officiating at an interfaith wedding is interesting. It is clear that his proposal comes from a place of thoughtfulness and love of Judaism, the Jewish people and those connected to them. Rabbi Lau-Lavie, like all of us, is struggling with our generation’s most complex problem: how do…
Responding to the 72 percent intermarriage rate among Conservative, Reform and other non-Orthodox-raised Jews; how can rabbis – and more broadly, “The Jewish World” – convey two seemingly contradictory messages? First, we (rabbis, parents, institutions, friends, etc.) want to say that whoever you marry, we want you to be deeply engaged in Jewish life. Not…
Early in my career as a journalist, a brilliant editor encouraged me and other reporters to look for the stories that “oozed” — the ones that are found just below the surface — because day-to-day news can obscure deeper and more significant trends. Among Orthodox Jews, the oozing story of our day is the emergence…
On the February night that President Trump unveiled his travel ban on immigrants from Muslim countries, Samir Malik, a 31-year-old tech developer whose parents are from Pakistan, was on his way to dinner in Brooklyn. Text messages buzzed on his phone. Activist friends of his were on the way to JFK airport to protest. He…
As Conservative religious leaders continue to debate whether the movement should bless intermarriages, one rabbi is adding his voice to a growing group that wants to officiate such ceremonies. Rabbi Steven Abraham of Beth El Synagogue in Omaha penned an op-ed in The Times of Israel this week calling on the movement to change its…
In a recent essay in The Jewish Week titled “Mikveh Can Solve Conversion Problem”, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove presented a courageous attempt to address arguably the most pressing problem of 21st century American Jewry: intermarriage. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the problem of intermarriage is that for many Millennials, it is not a problem at…
When Holly first kissed Jeff on a dance floor back in the 1990s, she was a college freshman from Staten Island and he was a frat brother from Long Island. They both had New York accents. He thought the petite brunette was Jewish. But Holly Rizzuto was and still is an Italian Catholic, named Holly…
The next movie I plan to see is Jordan Peele’s horror film, “Get Out.” That’s both because it’s supposed to be amazing, and for another, more specific reason: I wrote my doctoral dissertation on how fictional intermarriage plots have been used to tell broader stories about identity. A horror story about a black man (Chris)…
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