Nine days ago I listed a variety of classes for New York Jews of all ages. Today I'm writing about a Jewish class for non-Jews.
Know any Brooklyn moms raising Jewish children but who aren't themselves Jewish?
The East Midwood Jewish Center (EMJC) is offering The Mothers Circle--an outreach program designed to support non-Jewish moms who are helping to create Jewish homes. A free series of one hour classes (meeting twice a month) will explore Jewish traditions and provide resources and tools.
This is not a conversion course. The classes emphasize learning, sharing, and support in a non-preachy setting. The Mothers Circle is a national program. It is making its debut in Brooklyn at EMJC. If childcare is needed, a free story-telling and creative play class for Mothers Circle children is partnered with Mothers Circle sessions: Joanne Riel, a specialist in early childhood music, will offer a Jewish-inspired music/creative movement/story class ("Jewjewbees") while the moms are meeting. Think Music Together with a Jewish Twist. Families who know Joanne's way with kids will know how fun this class will be. The first meeting will be held on Sunday October 25, 2009 at 4:00 PM.
The topics of the first four sessions will be:
- Getting Acquainted: Introductions; religious memories and experiences.
- Making Jewish Choices: What it means to raise Jewish children and make Jewish parenting choices.
- Effective Jewish Parenting: Key principles of Jewish parenting.
- From Mitzvah to Mensch: Jewish values to instill in children on their paths to becoming caring people.
By the fifth meeting it will be December and there will be a Hanukkah session (learn about the holiday's symbols and traditions and discuss December holiday decisions). The meeting after the Hanukkah meeting will be on Jewish values. Anita Diamant's book, How To Raise a Jewish Child, (2008 edition) is part of the curriculum, and EMJC will provide copies to participants. The Mothers Circle, the Jewjewbees group, and all materials are made possible by a seed grant to support innovative Jewish family programming in Brooklyn. Non-Jewish fathers raising Jewish children are also welcome to participate. For more information, contact Audrey Korelstein at (917)445-6015. The East Midwood Jewish Center is located at 1625 Ocean Avenue (between Avenues K & L) in Brooklyn.
In Manhattan Parents Inter-Circle, a Mothers Circle affiliated group that also includes non-Jewish fathers raising Jewish children, has been meeting at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, located at 7 West 83rd Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. For more information, call Rabbi Grushcow at (212) 362-8800, ext. 3025 or email intercircle@rodephsholom.org.
By now I expect some of our Orthodox and Conservadox readers are asking, "How can the child of a non-Jewish mother be Jewish?" and/or are thinking that Mothers Circle must only apply to Reform Judaism which has patriineal descent. In fact both Orthodox and Conservative Judaism permit childhood conversion. I know of a Roman Catholic woman married to an Orthodox Jewish man who agreed that their children would be raised Jewish; the children were converted in infancy, are being raised as Jews, attend day school, go to synagogue with their dad, and have become bnei mitvah. The difference between Orthodox and Conservative halacha on the identity of the child on the one hand, and Reform and Reconstructionist patrilineal descent on the other hand, is that the former requires that the parents take the proactive steps of converting the child and raising the child as a Jew. It is a mistake to assume that a child of intermarried parents whose mother is not Jewish is necessarily not halchically Jewish.
For more info: David Cooper
Comments
This is ridicoulous! Only Jewish women can give birth to and raise Jewish children! It's impossible for a Gentile women to raise Jewish children. First these women steal our men then they try to steal our role in raising Jewish children. They are frauds while Jewish women are the real thing.
I'm sick of Jewish women being treated like insignificant trash in the Gentile and Jewish communities. We are the only women capable of raising Jewish children because we were born and raised Jewish! No one else can do the job.
Disgusted: Would you rather these moms raise their children in a different religious tradition? That they are raising their children as Jews is a good thing. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
These children be raised as Christians because that's what they are. They can't be raised Jewish because their mothers are Gentiles. I would rather have a few real Jews than many fake Jews.
Only Jewish women can give birth to and raise Jewish children. You're like most secular Jewish men who think that Gentile women are superior to Jewish women. I'm sick and tired of all the disrespect that Jewish men have for Jewish women. To you we are nothing but trash and can be replaced by Gentile women. For your information Jewish women are valuable and significant!
Disgusted: Your approach would paint the Jewish community into an ever shrinking corner. 48% of college age Jewish-Americans have one gentile parent; to make them feel unwelcome would be self-defeating and reflect badly on us. Keeping them involved, on the other hand, increases the likelihood that those who are not already Jewish will convert. Let me remind you that Abraham and Sarah were not only the first Jews they were the first converts. If we trace our ancestries back far enough we all have formothers who were not born Jewish. When a convert emerges from the mikvah (s)he is just as Jewish as any other Jew, and that also applies to the children of gentile mothers who are being raised as Jews. It's a pity they have to endure the dismissive comments of ignorant and intolerant fellow Jews.
You're the one that's ignorant. Children born to a Gentile mother and Jewish father are Gentiles. If they want to be Jewish then they must convert. It's impossible for Gentile women to raise Jewish children! You obviously think that Gentile women are superior to Jewish women. Your attitude towards Jewish women is the same as the nazis. You're problaby not even a real Jew!
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