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Conversion and the Jewish Community: Current Issue of InterfaithFamily.com


In the current issue of its Web Magazine, InterfaithFamily.com an independent non-profit publisher and advocacy membership association, presents articles and opinions about the current debate within the Jewish community regarding the best way to encourage more intermarrying couples to connect with the Jewish community and raise Jewish children.

The Jewish community’s response to intermarriage and interfaith families has always been complicated, never more so than in the wake of recent announcements from the Reform and Conservative movements to encourage conversion of non-Jewish spouses.  In the current issue of its Web Magazine, InterfaithFamily.com an independent non-profit publisher and advocacy membership association, presents articles and opinions about the current debate within the Jewish community regarding the best way to encourage more intermarrying couples to connect with the Jewish community and raise Jewish children.

Original and reprinted articles include “Real Realism on Intermarriage” and “Revisiting and Promoting Conversion” by Jack Wertheimer and Steven Bayme, founding members, the Jewish In-Marriage Initiative; “Welcoming Non-Jewish Spouses and Converts to Judaism” by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president, the Reform movement; “When Intermarriage Hits Home” by Gary Rosenblatt, editor, The New York Jewish Week; “Engaging Intermarrieds Is Not a Zero-sum Game” by Sherry Israel, Hornstein Program, Brandeis University; and “The Next Big Thing is Now: Outreach to the Intermarried” by Edmund Case, president and publisher, InterfaithFamily.com.

“Jewish outreach to the intermarried became a significant hot button again in the fall, when the Reform and Conservative movements independently decided to promote new efforts to encourage conversion.  The risk: aggressively promoting conversion will alienate non-Jewish partners who are raising Jewish children – not to mention their Jewish partners and in-laws,” says Case.  “At the same time, we think it essential that the Jewish community, which currently allocates less than one-tenth of one percent of its spending on outreach to interfaith families, devote much more attention and funding to those efforts.  This issue of InterfaithFamily.com’s Web Magazine is designed to provide perspectives and resources to the Jewish community on this important debate.”



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