Susan Katz Miller's Blog, page 8
February 11, 2020
Interfaith Families: Why I (Still) Use The Term
How do those of us who form families across religious (or secular/humanist/atheist) differences find other families like us?
How do we share resources and support each other?
How do we talk about our identities, advocate for our right to exist, create space at all the tables, and encourage the academic study of our experiences?
To search, google, connect to each other, and join relevant conversations, we use the term interfaith families.
I have been using that term since I was born into...
December 30, 2019
My (Interfaith) Decade, 2010-2019
This was a big decade for me. Both personally and professionally, the past ten years have featured dizzying highs and devastating lows, interwoven achievements and heartbreak. I am, frankly, exhausted just thinking back on it. And yet, it seems important to do just that–to try to gain perspective and a sure footing as I gaze out at the horizon of the next decade.
I have been laid low. I experienced more personal loss in this decade than in my whole...
December 26, 2019
Eight Top Interfaith Family Posts of the Decade
We are heading into a new decade (and the second decade for this blog). So I thought I would pause to think about the top interfaith family themes from 2009 to 2019, as represented by the most popular posts on this blog.
Muslim and Jewish: Interfaith on “Shahs of Sunset“ (24,879 views). This post gets a lot of hits because of the success of the frothy long-running reality show, with all its fake scripted scenes and whipped-up melodrama. But I like...December 11, 2019
In December: Children’s Books, Interfaith Literacy
Many families that celebrate Hanukkah (including interfaith families) like to focus on Hanukkah gifts other than toys, at least on some of the eight nights. The idea is to differentiate Hanukkah from Christmas, and acknowledge that lavish gifts were not originally part of modest little Hanukkah. So, we have the traditional night-of-giving-socks. Or, games-instead-of-gifts night. Or, giving-to-others night. And, the favorite of authors and readers: the night of giving...
In December: Children's Books, Interfaith Literacy
Many families that celebrate Hanukkah (including interfaith families) like to focus on Hanukkah gifts other than toys, at least on some of the eight nights. The idea is to differentiate Hanukkah from Christmas, and acknowledge that lavish gifts were not originally part of modest little Hanukkah. So, we have the traditional night-of-giving-socks. Or, games-instead-of-gifts night. Or, giving-to-others night. And, the favorite of authors and readers: the night of giving...
December 5, 2019
The Problem with Gendered Descent
Religions, many of them, lag and drag on issues of gender equality. We see this in the patriarchal texts and liturgies, the dearth of women in religious power, the resistance to full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people. A growing percentage of young adults no longer feel any need to affiliate, or any use for religious institutions. One reason at the top of the list is antiquated perspectives on gender and sexuality. Another interrelated reason: archaic treatment...
November 14, 2019
Book Review: Darius the Great is Not Okay
We need to listen to the voices of kids from all sorts of interfaith families, not just Jewish and Christian families. Darius the Great is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram, is a poignant, lyrical, hilarious novel, with an unforgettable protagonist from a complex interfaith family. This award-winning 2018 Young Adult (YA) novel stars Darius Kellner, an American teenager who happens to have a Persian-American Zoroastrian mother, and a European-American secular humanist father. The novel centers on a summer when D...
October 31, 2019
Halloween in an Interfaith Families Community
Halloween is the quintessential interfaith holiday, with both pagan and Christian roots, and an enthusiastic following among Jews. When I was growing up, no one questioned that American Jews (or people of any other religion) should celebrate Halloween. But then again, it was an era when many Jews celebrated secular Christmas.
More recently, fear of assimilation and a shift among some progressive Jews to more traditional practice triggered
October 18, 2019
The Interfaith Family Journal. Wait, What Is It Again?
So I recently ran into a friend at a party who asked me, “Didn’t you publish a calendar or something this year? Based on your first book?”
I tried to be very calm in replying. Note: words in parentheses are words I was thinking but did not say.
“(Dude!!!!) it’s not a (flipping) calendar, it’s a (completely awesome) interactive journal, or workbook. (And by the way, I put my heart and soul into creating it).. And it’s not based on my first book, (which is a chronicle of interfaith families doing both)...
October 13, 2019
Sukkoth in an Interfaith Families Community
(This essay is adapted from a post from 2013).
The three great agricultural festivals in Judaism–Sukkoth, Passover, and Shavuot–tie us to our ancient origins, when we lived in intimate relation to nature. During the week of Sukkoth, we build temporary outdoor huts (or tabernacles), cover them with branches, and festoon them with harvest fruits. We are commanded to eat and sleep in the Sukkah–to look up through the branches at the stars, and sense our own fragility, and the infinity of the u...
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