Interfaith Families: Personal Stories of Jewish-Christian Intermarriage

256 Pages·2004·0.75 MB·English

by  Jane Kaplan

Interfaith Families:
Personal Stories of
Jewish-Christian
Intermarriage
Jane Kaplan
PRAEGER
Interfaith Families
Interfaith Families
Personal Stories of
Jewish-Christian
Intermarriage
Jane Kaplan
Foreword by Phil Donahue, talk show host
Westport, Connecticut 䊉 London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kaplan, Jane, 1951–
Interfaith families : personal stories of Jewish-Christian intermarriage / Jane Kaplan ;
foreword by Phil Donahue.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–275–98225–4 (alk. paper)
1. Interfaith marriage—United States. 2. Interfaith families—United States.
3. Jews—United States—Social conditions. 4. Christians—United States—
Social conditions. I. Title
HQ1031.K36 2004
306.84´3—dc22 2003062428
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2004 by Jane Kaplan
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2003062428
ISBN: 0–275–98225–4
First published in 2004
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
FOREWORD BY PHIL DONAHUE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1 CHOOSING A JEWISH FAMILY LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 CHOOSING A CHRISTIAN FAMILY LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3 FINDING A WAY TO HAVE BOTH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4 LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5 DECIDING TO CONVERT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Foreword
This book is more than a collection of stories of Jewish-Christian
intermarriages. It is an astonishingly honest look inside the hearts and
minds of married people of different faiths. Ms. Kaplan brings the best
gifts to this very personal inquiry: an unusually insightful and well-
focused interviewing skill and compassion for the very personal nature
of the issues. This book is an act of love and respect for the people who
have endured what for some was a terrifying discovery: being in love
with someone of another religion, another culture, another set of ritu-
als and values. It is a genuine page-turner with Jane Kaplan as the
guide on journeys that begin with, “What will my parents say?” and
proceed into the most sublime questions of life itself: “Who am I?
Who is my spouse? And who shall our children be?”
—Phil Donahue
Acknowledgments
Thanks first and foremost to my husband Harry and our children
Jacob and Eise for their consistent enthusiasm and support during this
entire project. Many thanks also to my agent Ron Laitsch, and to
Suzanne Staszak-Silva at Praeger for her clear and insightful guidance
in shaping this book. I greatly appreciate Phil Donahue’s extreme gen-
erosity and encouragement. And I want to thank John Ware for his
early help with the original manuscript.