Susan Katz Miller's Blog, page 3

Being Both, the Audiobook: Kickstarter Campaign!

Next month marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family. Over the past decade, I believe this book really has changed the way people think about interfaith families. And to celebrate, I am inviting you to help reach more families with the support they need to honor both religions.

How can you do that? Join the Kickstarter campaign for a Being Both audiobook!

Why an audiobook?

A growing number of people listen to b...

Got More Than One Religion? New Resources for Educators!

Exciting news! Today I’m announcing the kickoff of a new project to create resources on multiple religious practice, for educators. And I just posted on YouTube the first three episodes of a video series on multiple religious practice, under the title “Got More Than One Religion?”

I created these new resources to support high school and college educators in including multiple religious practice in courses such as Religion 101, or World Religions, or Religious Pluralism. The “Got More Th...

Book Review: Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret

Why am I reviewing a book that came out more than 50 years ago? Because the long-awaited movie finally opens next week.

As much as I loved this book in 1970 for its frank description of adolescence, the interfaith family subplot has always bothered me. The author did not grow up in an interfaith family, and had no direct experience of the matter. Instead, this beloved and iconic novel drew heavily on the myth of the stressed and confused interfaith child. You can read my perspective on a...

(Interfaith) American Girl Dolls

Felicity

My daughter is a 90s kid. She grew up listening to Avril Lavigne on a CD boombox, and playing Zoo Tycoon on a family desktop with dial-up. And, she grew up with the original American Girl dolls–dolls set in different historical periods and cultures, with novels telling their stories. When we visited Colonial Williamsburg, she wore her official Felicity dress, to match the doll with a story set there. (They both have long red hair, and love animals). So when she told me this week tha...

Spring Interfaith Holidays 2023

Glorious Color quilts by my cousin, Liza Prior Lucy

This post has become an annual tradition. Each year, the various calendars shift, pulled here and there by the sun and the moon, and the chronology and overlap of holidays will change. This year, the spring line-up begins with Shrove Tuesday tomorrow. And this year, we have Easter, Passover and Ramadan all converging–a special challenge and blessing for interfaith families with Abrahamic trifecta lineages!

Over more than a decade writing...

A To-Do List

This week, there is cause for celebration in the interfaith family world. Hebrew College, a non-denominational rabbinical school outside Boston, has decided to admit rabbinical and cantorial students who have partners of other religions. Thus, they join the rabbinical schools of several progressive Jewish movements–Humanistic Judaism, Jewish Renewal, and Reconstructing Judaism–in admitting and ordaining people in interfaith relationships. Ed Case, the most prominent advocate for interfaith f...

Template: Interfaith Coming of Age or B-Mitzvah

Families celebrating more than one religion can, and do, design interfaith coming of age celebrations for their children. These ceremonies sometimes start with, draw on, or incorporate the B-Mitzvah traditions in our heritage. Our Jewish and Christian interfaith family, along with beloved clergy, created ceremonies for each of our children (who are now 28 and 25). Over the years, I have often been asked for a coming of age ceremony template. And a reader asked again just this week. And so, I...

Hanukkah AND Christmas Books For Interfaith Children

Once upon a time, December holiday books for children focused on either Christmas, or Hanukkah. Now, many children grow up in Jewish families celebrating Christmas with Christian grandparents. Or, they grow up in Christian families celebrating Hanukkah with Jewish grandparents. Or, they grow up in interfaith families celebrating both. Here, I update my growing list of Hanukkah and Christmas books, in chronological order of publication. No two interfaith families have the same way of celebrat...

8 Ways to a Peaceful December in Interfaith Families

My little sister and I, in our interfaith family in 1964.

We have reached December, the last month of the third year of the pandemic. And whether you feel like you are in the mood for dancing or not, December means that many interfaith families are about to join in the dance of Hanukkah and Christmas. This year the dance involves new steps because the eight nights of Hanukkah end on Christmas Day. So, whether you celebrate one of those holidays, or both, or neither, all of us need to cultiva...

Dance of Hanukkah and Christmas: 8 Tips for 2022

The solar Gregorian calendar determines the timing of Christian holidays, while both the sun and moon guide the Jewish calendar. As a result, each year interfaith families who celebrate both must choreograph the dance of Hanukkah and Christmas in a new way. In 2022, the last night of Hanukkah falls on Christmas Day. So this year, I am updating this guide because the dance will require some expert steps.

The convergence of the two holidays increases the complexity of preparation, and coord...