Two of my friends were involved with the Longitudinal Jewish Continuity Study commissioned by UJA Federation. The point of that study was to see if, and how young Jews live Jewish lives in America. The study looked at synagogue membership, rates of intermarriage and levels of ritual observance. The Birthright trips to Israel for Jewish young adults are an outgrowth of the study. Over the past couple of days, I have had a series of email exchanges with a friend from one of the sewing discussion groups that I am involved with, that made me re-think some of the issues around inter-marriage. My friend, Marky, emailed me a few weeks ago. Marky isn't Jewish, but her daughter married someone who is Jewish and committed to raising the kids Jewish. Marky was looking for a Chanukah themed embroidery program. She was planning to make Chanukah gift bags for her grandchildren. Marky wanted to decorate the bags with appropriate symbols and perhaps the children's Hebrew names....
A blog, mostly about my work making Jewish ritual objects, but with detours into garment making, living in New York City, cooking, and other aspects of domestic life. A note about comments: I love comments from readers, from spammers, not so much. I approve comments before posting them so comments are not cluttered with junk. It may take a few hours before your posts appear. Be patient. If you are a real person with a real comment it will be posted.