Susan Katz Miller's Blog, page 7

8 Ways to a Peaceful December in Interfaith Families

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

We have reached (finally!) the last month of the longest year I can remember, 2020. And December means that many interfaith families are about to join in the dance of Hanukkah and Christmas, whether or not they feel like dancing. This year, the eight nights of Hanukkah start on December 10th, midway between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Personally, I prefer these years when Hanukkah begins and ends before Christmas, so that each holiday...

Blessed Are the Nones: Book Review

The most common, and the fastest-growing, type of interfaith marriage in the US is a marriage between a Christian and a “religious none.” (The “nones” are a catch-all for anyone who doesn’t check one religion box–whether an atheist, an agnostic, spiritual but not religious, or someone with many religious heritages). Whenever I give a talk on interfaith families, I always get questions from families navigating differences between religious and non-religious beliefs. Now, a lively, original, a...

Being Both…a Male and Female God: Q & A with Rabbi Mark Sameth

Rabbi Mark Sameth’s new book, The Name: A History of the Dual-Gendered Hebrew Name for God, chronicles how the God of ancient Israel was understood by its earliest worshipers to be a non-binary, male-female deity. Recently, I had a chance to ask the Rabbi about his new book, and how it might be particularly relevant to interfaith families.

Q: Your book chronicles the idea that the secret, unpronounceable name for God in ancient Israel is Hu-Hi, or “He-She,” an entity equally male and fema...

The Interfaith Family of Kamala Harris

Kamala means lotus in Sanskrit. Photo Susan Katz Miller

When Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running-mate yesterday, he created the possibility of the first interfaith kid in an interfaith marriage in the White House. ““I grew up going to a black Baptist Church and a Hindu temple,” Harris told the Los Angeles Times. And at her marriage to Jewish husband, attorney Douglas Emhoff, they included both a flower garland from the Hindu wedding ...

A Silver Lining in Zoom Community

[image error]My grandfather Edward David Katz (right) and his twin, Edna.

My fathers grandmother lost both parents in a yellow fever epidemic. My fathers father lost his twin in the flu pandemic of 1918, and later spent decades in a wheelchair. My father was a child of the Great Depression, and a World War II veteran. And, despite all this, or because of it, he was a stubborn optimist. On the piano, he loved to play Look for the Silver Lining, Accentuate the Positive, and On the Sunny Side of the Street....

New Video! May This Hamsa Protect Us All

After weeks confined at home, I felt a brief surge of creativity, and decided to make a speed coloring video. I had created the coloring pages a year ago to celebrate the publication of The Interfaith Family Journal. But I had never made time to actually color the pages myself. I found it did create peace and joy to color the detailed drawing of a hamsa. Speeding up the video means you can watch me color the whole page in less than 15 minutes, and I found watching the page fill up with...

A Steep Mountain: Interfaith Life in a Pandemic

[image error]In my Easter bonnet. On mute.

We made it through Holy Week and Passover. Dayenu.

Dayenu is everyones favorite song at the Seder. It means, it would have been enough. We use it to express gratitude. Even in this harrowing time, we need gratitude. (We also need big helpings of courage, and righteous anger, and passion for social justice, all themes of the seder).

Since I last posted here, the pandemic has gotten very close and real. I know people who have died, are sick, were separated from...

Happy Birthday, Interfaith Family Journal

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We are living through strange, dark times. To keep anxiety and depression at bay, we need to remember what is good in the world, and to celebrate what we can, while we can, with those we love most. We also need to feel we can help others.

Today is the first birthday of The Interfaith Family Journal . I like to think that this little book is still in its infancythat it is just starting to make its mark on the world. The Journal is just beginning to help couples, families, clergy and...

Hamentaschen, Fertility, and Syncretism

[image error]Photo, Susan Katz Miller

Why is this hamentaschen upside-down? Is it a distress signal?

No! Just Purim fun, and feminist chutzpah. I simply rotated one of my old photos 180 degrees, to give you a new perspective.

I took this photo ten years ago, intending to visually signal the fact that a hamentasch (grammatically this is the singular) looks like a vulva, or a vagina, or a fruitful uterus, or some combination thereof. As someone who wrote my undergraduate thesis in the history of science on...

Spring Interfaith Holidays 2020

[image error]Glorious Colorquilts by my cousin, Liza Prior Lucy

This post has become an annual tradition! In ten years of writing this interfaith blog, I have posted multiple essays on many of the spring Jewish and Christian holidays:Purim,St Patrick’s Day,Passover,Easter. But the complex, interlocking quilt squares of #GenInterfaith now go far beyond Judaism and Christianity.

My new bookThe Interfaith Family Journal, is designed for all interfaith families, of any or all religions, or none. And while we...