Susan Katz Miller's Blog, page 14
November 23, 2016
Interfaith Pioneer: Rabbi Joseph Rauch
Yesterday, I drove my father to the house where he was born, for our annual Thanksgiving gathering. I woke early this morning and started sifting through old photos and letters. I kept returning to one yellowed pamphlet: the November 1952 bulletin from Temple Adath Israel in Louisville, Kentucky. The bulletin provides a snapshot of the community led by Rabbi Joseph Rauch, who was my great-uncle, and a pioneer in interfaith relations. Reading through this bulletin from a Thanksgiving season 6...
November 7, 2016
A Rabbi, a Minister, a Wedding
Thirty years ago, a rabbi and a minister co-officiated at my interfaith wedding. My husband and I felt strongly that both of our religions should be represented at this moment when we came together to form a family. It wasn’t easy to find a rabbi who would support us and celebrate our marriage with us in this way. Few rabbis did interfaith marriages, and even fewer would co-officiate with a minister. Many rabbis who would officiate tried to extract a promise about how the future children wo...
October 28, 2016
Interfaith Families in the Jewish World
Philadelphia Sukkah, Leslie Sudock
How are interfaith families creating a new Jewish reality in America? That was the theme at the Interfaith Opportunity Summit in Philadelphia this week, organized by InterfaithFamily. The summit was attended by some 350 Jewish leaders: rabbis, Jewish educators, leading academics who study Judaism in America, and Jewish funders. I was honored to be invited to speak there about interfaith families celebrating both family religions.
I had just five minutes, an...
October 23, 2016
A Death in My Interfaith Family
Mom, Me, 1961
My mother, Martha Legg Katz, died last month. I have been uncharacteristically quiet here, in public, since she fell ill in the heat of August. When she died in September at home–my childhood home–I stood in the driveway watching the full moon rise behind a scrim of tall New England pines. Now it is October and the full moon has come and gone again. And so it feels like it is time to return to all of you.
In Judaism, there are special rules for shiva, the first seven days after...
October 3, 2016
High Holy Days: Interfaith Connections
Over the past seven years, in over 300 posts, I have written about many different aspects of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, from the context of an interfaith family. Here is one of the most popular essays from that collection. –SKM
When we experience the religious rituals of the “other,” we usually cannot help but respond with an internal running commentary, seeking connections to our own past. I know that whenever I heard the blast of a conch shell at an Afro-Brazilian rite during my years...
August 8, 2016
An Interfaith Family’s Call to Action
Today, I am honored to post a new essay from guest blogger Rorri Geller-Mohamed, who helped create the JewishMuslimFamilies facebook page. For more on Rorri, see this recent essay on her Jewish and Muslim wedding. –Susan Katz Miller
As we get closer to November, I feel myself becoming more and more worried and scared about what this election will mean for my interfaith family. I’m shocked that a candidate with such blatant hateful, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric has made it this far in t...
August 4, 2016
In Recife, Brazil: The First Synagogue in the New World
In honor of the Rio Olympics, I thought I would re-post this essay, written seven years ago, in the year I launched this blog. I’m glad to report that both of my children, in the intervening years, grew in their appreciation of museums. Inspired by our 2009 visit, both of them also went on to study Portuguese in college, and we are all suffering from “saudades” and yearning to visit again soon.–SKM
My kids hate museums, or so they claim. My daughter, 15, says she doesn’t like the way the...
July 26, 2016
Young Interfaith Adults, In Real Life
What happens when you grow up with interfaith education in an interfaith families community, and then go out into the real world? Recently, a panel of young adults who grew up celebrating both family religions returned to the Interfaith Families Project of Washington DC (IFFP), to speak about their experiences. I served as the facilitator, and below, I bring you some of the highlights of our conversation. –Susan Katz Miller
SKM: What was it like leaving the bubble of an interfaith families...
July 12, 2016
Successful Interfaith Marriage: A Jewish and Muslim Wedding
Photo, Cassarino Studios
I recently met Rorri Geller-Mohamed at Brookville’s Multifaith Campus on Long Island, where her family has the ongoing support of both a rabbi and a progressive Muslim study group. I invited her to write for OnBeingBoth.com about her Jewish and Muslim interfaith family. Here’s her first post, on her wedding planning and weekend of celebrations.–SKM
Most brides love talking about their weddings, but I especially enjoy sharing my interfaith wedding story. My husband an...
June 10, 2016
A Jewish Woman Who Says Inshallah
The Tidjane Mosque in Kaoloack, Senegal, through the filter of red harmattan dust in 1989. Photo by Susan Katz Miller.
Once again this year, I am honored to be a part of #InterfaithRamadan, the month-long series of daily essays curated by interfaith activist Sarah Ager (@SaritaAgerman). Sarah is an English teacher living in Italy, a preacher’s kid. and a convert to Islam who describes herself as a “postmodern Anglo-Muslim hybrid.” She writes a blog called “A Hotchpotch Hijabi in Italy.” Two y...
