Blog entries

Issues of Spirituality

Ellen Goldsmith — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:18:04 +0100

Spirituality is an often intensely personal expression of one’s relationship with God, self, and others. While both Judaism and various Christian denominations encourage us to share a spiritual relationship with our spouses or with an even wider circle, there are probably no two people who don’t have significant differences in their relationship with God. For this reason alone, finding common ground eludes most people, who encounter difficulty doing so, at least for a while. Read More...

Compromise and Sacrifice

Ellen Goldsmith — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:01:19 +0100

Carol and Mark met in high achool. They were immediately smitten with each other, and were known as the “Barbie and Ken” of their town. They fit together so well, they could have never imagined what would happen later on in their “picture perfect” marriage. They were so young, had very little guidance and couldn’t even imagine the conflicts that having children would create.

Carol was raised Catholic and Mark, Jewish, neither of them having too Read More...

Ruth and Boaz - An Intermarriage Made in Heaven

David Rudolph — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:47:13 +0100

Ruth the Moabitess married an Israelite named Mahlon who had been living in Moab. When Mahlon died, Ruth chose to return with her mother-in-law to Israel and become an Israelite herself. She declared to her Jewish mother-in-law, “Your people will be my people and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Ruth’s words inspired the Sages and became the formal statement of covenant that has since been uttered by millions of other converts to Israel. Ruth is depicted in JewisRead More...

Facing Hard Things

Ellen Goldsmith — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:11:55 +0100

Jenny knew Alan was Jewish even before she was formally introduced to him by one of her sorority sisters. She had had a crush on him for over a year now and wasn’t about to pass up this opportunity. She was very interested in this promising man who was going o go to Medical School in the fall and was always very popular. It wasn’t bad that he was great looking also.. Of course they hit it off and decided to work to maintain the relationship despite the fact that he wouRead More...

King David's Family and Intermarriage

David Rudolph — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:20:37 +0100

King David had several wives. One of them was a non-Israelite by the name of Maacah. We do not know much about her except that she was the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, a pagan ruler (1 Chron 3:2). Through this intermarriage, Absalom and Tamar were born (2 Sam 13:1). Absalom killed his stepbrother Amnon for raping Tamar and fled to his pagan grandfather's kingdom where he lived in exile for several years (2 Sam 13:37). Absalom eventually returned to Jerusalem and led a conspiracy againsRead More...

Anti-Semitic In-laws

Ellen Goldsmith — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:41:13 +0100

Barry and Suzanne asked if they could speak to me... They had been married for 7 years. He was Jewish from NY. She was from a Catholic family who grew up in the Midwest. They had met after college in NY. Suzanne had gone to school in the Midwest and after graduation ventured out to NY to work in the fashion industry. She was very hip, a great designer and actually fit into NY pretty well. A little less assertive than most but definitely had style. Barry worked on Wall StreRead More...

What the Torah Says About Intermarriage

David Rudolph — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:06:33 +0100

Rabbi Arthur Blecher reminds us in his recent book The New American Judaism that Jews have been intermarrying for thousands of years and that the Torah, the central document of Jewish law, does not contain a universal prohibition of intermarriage:
Intermarriage is as old as the Jewish people. Of the 613 commandments in the Torah, the first five books of Scripture that form the core of Jewish law, no commandment categorically forbids a Jew to marry a gentile. In fact, in Exodus 2:21, the HebRead More...

The Messianic Jewish and Interfaith options

David Rudolph — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:50:01 +0100

In his book Making a Successful Jewish Interfaith Marriage, Rabbi Kerry Olitzky comments on the extent of intermarriage in the Jewish community:

In the past 10 years, over half of the marriages involving Jews have been to partners not born Jewish. At least one third of the three million Jewish families who identify as such in the United States have a head-of-household (this includes men and women) who was not born Jewish. About one third of the families who are members of Reform congregatRead More...

It can happen to YOU

Ellen Goldsmith — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:46:51 +0100

A couple approached me to discuss how they were both feeling what they had never wanted to feel. Before Brian, who is a Gentile, and Sara, who is Jewish, got married, they promised to themselves and each other that their different religious backgrounds wouldn't get in the way. They loved each other so much more than that. They wouldn't be like the other couples they had met. They weren't going to have those sorts of problems.

Now they were feeling deep conflict and confusion. ThRead More...