Category Archives: Half-Jewish Network

September 14, 2012 · 6:02 am

Sixth Half-Jewish Network Blog/Email Newsletter – Additional Information

Dear Friends:

Our original post was missing some information, which we would like to make sure that you receive.

Share Our Newsletter

Do you have a relative, friend, co-worker or acquaintance who might find our free email newsletter interesting? Please forward it to them and suggest that they visit our website at:

www.half-jewish.net

and subscribe.

Plus, you may wish to visit our “Resources” pages:

Jewish Resources — http://half-jewish.net/jewish-resources/

Christian Resources — http://half-jewish.net/christian-resources/

Muslim  & Others Resources — http://half-jewish.net/muslim-resources/

Multiracial/Biracial Resources — http://half-jewish.net/biracialmultiracial/

We add new resources to each page as they become available. If you know of any resources that we have not listed, please contact us. The most recent additions are some Jewish resources, see below:

6.  Zinn House

http://www.zinnhouse.com

Lauren Zinn, Ph.D., Rev., leads a Jewish-Interfaith Community, Jewish Roots with Interfaith Shoots.  Her programs for Kids, Adults, and Families, since 2001, include classes, celebrations, ceremonies, and coaching.  Hebrew tutoring, for adults or children seeking Interfaith Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, is available through Skype.

If interested in learning more, please see the website. Lauren can be contacted at laurenzinn[at]gmail.com

7. MyBarMitzvahTutors.com

http://www.mybarmitzvahtutors.com/

MyBarMitzvahTutors.com is an online Bar/Bat Mitzvah and Jewish learning program which embraces all Jews from all backgrounds in meaningful Jewish learning. MyBarMitzvahTutors offers learning programs for all Jews regardless of age, location, or affiliation.With online learning, MyBarMitzvahTutors brings Jewish learning into the comfort of your home and works around your schedule.Please visit our website for more information or email Danielle Eskow, the co-founder of MyBarMitzvahTutors at dani@mybarmitzvahtutors.com. Let us help you bring Jewish learning into your heart, life, and home.

8. World of Judaica

http://www.worldofjudaica.com/

World of Judaica is an Israel based company offering a large selection of high quality and crafted traditional and modern Judaica items.  World of Judaica combines retail items and education to provide the most complete Judaica experience to every customer.   World of Judaica is proud to offer an extensive Learning Center where you can learn about the basics of Judaism, from beliefs to Shabbat, Holidays and Biblical Figures as well as how the Jewish calendar works.

2 Comments

Filed under Biracial, Christian Half-Jewish People, Half-Jewish Network, Israel and Half-Jewish People, Multiracial

March 16, 2012 · 3:59 am

Fifth Half-Jewish Network Blog/Email Newsletter

March 16, 2012

Dear Friends:

Greetings to everyone celebrating St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), Palm Sunday (April 1), Good Friday (April 6), Erev Pesach – First Seder (Passover – April 6),  Pesach  - Second Seder (Passover – April 7), Easter Sunday (April 8), Easter Monday (April 9), Yom Ha-Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day – April 19), and Earth Day (April 22).

You’ll notice that Passover and Easter fall on the same weekend this year.  We know this creates conflicts in some of our families — best of luck in dealing with them!

1. Conference on Half-Jewish People (April 20th, Evanston, Illinois):

Dear Friends: We have been asked to publicize this conference and hope to have a speaker present. If any one living near Evanston, Illinois sees this notice and attends this conference, please let us know what you thought of it.

The organizer, Rabbi Adam Chalom of Humanistic Judaism, has always been friendly to the Half-Jewish Network and displayed concern about the adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage.

Conference Information: Upcoming Colloquium of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism: “Half Jewish?” The Heirs of Intermarriage.“

Our Colloquium will be held April 20-22, 2012 at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL in cooperation with Newberger Hillel at the University of Chicago and Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern University.

How will the heirs of intermarriage change Judaism? Can you be “Jewish and” rather than “Jewish or”? Can the Jewish world handle “half Jewish”? Or is being “half Jewish” no big deal anymore?

For two decades, half of the marriages involving Jews have been intercultural. Their children are now young adults, choosing their own identities.

Online registration at http://halfjewish.eventbrite.com has the program details. Participating speakers and panelists will include voices from the Jewish Outreach Institute, Newberger Hillel, Birthright-Israel NEXT, the Half-Jewish Network, Jews in all Hues, The Society for Humanistic Judaism and Interfaith Family.com, as well as from the world of academic Jewish Studies and from Israel.

2.  Here is a funny interview with rapper Drake (African-American father, Jewish mother).

3. Henrique Capriles y Radonski, candidate for President of Venezuela, has a Christian father and a Jewish mother:

This article — click on Radonski’s name to view it — has the same error about Radonski’s family that I have seen in many publications, in that it implies that Radonski is fully Jewish by parentage and converted to Catholicism.

Radonski is half-Jewish, not fully Jewish by ancestry, as the article incorrectly implies. He’s the child of an intermarriage.

His father had Dutch ancestry and his mother was Jewish. His full surname is “Capriles y Radonski” — Capriles would be his father’s name and Radonski is his mother’s name. He became seriously Catholic after a very nasty time as a political prisoner. Capriles Radonski himself has always been very open about being half-Jewish and a practicing Catholic.

I’m guessing that the anti-Semites want to claim him as fully Jewish ethnically so they can target him, and that Jewish groups want to claim him as fully Jewish ethnically due to anti-intermarriage bias.

It would be more respectful to him to acknowledge his Christian family as well as his Jewish family.

4. St. John of the Cross, a prominent 16th century Roman Catholic mystic, who wrote a book on the concept of the dark night of the soul, was apparently of mixed Jewish-Christian descent on one side of his family, and possibly partly-Muslim on the other side:

5. Aish article attacking intermarriage cites to the Purim story in the book of Esther in the Bible without once mentioning that Esther’s intermarriage with the Persian ruler is what saved the life of her Jewish community.

Can we say chutzpah (outrageous gall)? I think we can. Consider leaving a comment on the article pointing this out.

6. Humorous essay on views of American half-Jewish, half-Russian young woman in “My Russian Girl Problems.” If you like the article, you may want to leave the author a supportive comment.

7. What happens to half-Jewish people who make aliyah (immigrate) to Israel?

* American patrilineal half-Jewish woman refuses to convert via Orthodox Judaism, forbidden to marry Israeli Jew and leaves Israel.

* American matrilineal Jewish woman fights to marry Israeli Jew in Israel.

* American patrilineal Orthodox guy allowed to marry Orthodox convert in Israel.

Folks, I’m glad that the Orthodox Jewish couple was allowed to marry, but I don’t think half-Jewish people who are not interested in becoming Orthodox Jews should have to fight to marry Israelis.

8. Be’chol Lashon (In Every Tongue), an American organization for Jewish multiracial outreach, has asked that we publicize the trailer of a film they have made about an Ethiopian Jew who was kidnapped on his way to Israel and sold into slavery, “400 Miles“:

I’d be interested in your opinions of it.

9. The New York Jewish Federation has protested to the Israeli government about the discrimination against Ethiopian Jews within Israel.  We are monitoring this issue because many Ethiopian Jews currently trying to make aliyah are half-Jewish and obstacles are put in their way due to being descendants of intermarriage.

Here is an earlier issue of our newsletter that covers the difficulties of the Ethiopian half-Jewish people in greater detail – see especially the comments that were posted by an expert in the field on our website.

Cordially,

Robin

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Filed under Biracial, Christian Half-Jewish People, Ethiopian Jews, Half-Jewish Celebrities, Half-Jewish Network, Humanistic Judaism, Intermarriage, Israel and Half-Jewish People, Multiracial, Russian Half-Jewish People, Who Is A Jew

February 2, 2012 · 9:30 am

Fourth Half-Jewish Network Blog/Email Newsletter

February 1, 2012

Dear Friends:

Greetings to everyone who is celebrating Candlemass (Feb. 2 — the presentation of Christ as a baby at the Second Temple), the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (Feb. 5 — birthday of the founder of Islam),  Tu B’Shevat (Feb. 8 — begins at sundown on Feb. 7 — the Jewish New Year of Trees), Ash Wednesday (Feb. 22 — first day of Lent, Christian season of repentance), and Purim (Mar. 9, begins at sunset on March 8 — celebrates Jewish deliverance from a plot).

Here is the latest news on half-Jewish people that we have collected:

1. WordPress.com, which hosts our blog, has sent a 2011 summary of our new website’s statistics. Our new website was only in existence five months when the statistics were collected.

I was greatly surprised to read the following announcement:

“The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.”

MEBO (My Eyes Bulge Out)  – even setting aside possibly 2,000 views as probably being from me while I built the site last summer — and let us exclude 5,859 spammers —  that still leaves about 4,000 views over a five month period, an astonishing statistic for a website that caters to a very specialized niche.

2. Rev. Dr. Giles Fraser (Jewish father, Christian mother), Canon Chancellor of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, has given up his lucrative, perk-filled job to protest the Cathedral’s decision to evict the Occupy protesters:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/giles-fraser-ive-spent-my-life-on-the-naughty-step-6292851.html

If you are into prayer, please pray that he will find a new job soon, as he has a wife and several children to support.  Whether you agree with his politics or not, he is a very principled man.

3. Jennie Goldstein (Jewish father, Christian mother), is the only Jewish employee of the Arab-American Association of New York:

http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/89421/the-stranger/#comment-3684191

The Arab-American Association is a support group, helping new immigrants in America. If you look at the “Comments” section following the article, you’ll see that Jennie was harshly attacked — by other Jews — for:  (1) having a Jewish father instead of a Jewish mother and being brought up as “both” — you know that as a young child her parents made those decisions, not her;  (2) identifying as a Jew; and (3) daring to suggest that Arab-Americans should be treated courteously.

I posted a comment defending her, and would suggest that you also do the same. There were some comments in her favor besides mine, but not very many. I believe that it is important that we “push back.”

3. Reya El-Salahi, (Jewish mother, Muslim father), is a BBC radio broadcaster and television writer:

http://www.reyatv.com/

She recently toured Israel and the Palestinian territories and incurred the unhappiness of a politically conservative Anglican Christian group, the Anglican Friends of Israel,  for expressing some sympathy with the Palestinians.

http://www.anglicanfriendsofisrael.com/2011/11/a-recipe-that-almost-worked/#more-567

Matters were not improved when they discovered that her brother had supported the second Palestinian intifada (uprising).

The website claims that she was turned away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque as “not Muslim enough.” Since I didn’t see the broadcast, not sure what the commenter was referring to.

(Note: many people think all Episcopalians and Anglicans are politically and theologically liberal, however,  that is not true. In some countries the majority of Episcopalians and Anglicans are liberals; in other countries, quite the reverse.)

4. William Hensley (Jewish father, Native American mother) is a famous activist on behalf of the Inuit of Alaska. He had a very tough childhood.

His well-off Jewish father abandoned Hensley and his very troubled Inuit mother — as he had apparently previously abandoned another Inuit woman and Hensley’s half-sister by that relationship —  and Hensley had a very bad childhood until he was rescued by his mother’s cousin.

Hensley grew up to be a remarkable and talented advocate for the Inuit. Here is a picture of Hensley’s father:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaskapublic/5367622785/in/photostream/

Here is a picture of Hensley’s mother:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alaskapublic/5367960159/in/set-72157625730357735/

Here is a link to Hensley’s book about his life:

http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Miles-Tomorrow-Memoir-Alaska/dp/0374154848

which has pictures of him as an adult inside.

4. The Israeli Orthodox Chief Rabbinate now requires proof of matrilineal descent going back to a maternal great-great-grandmother for any Jew marrying in Israel.

This is a problem since no half-Jewish person can marry a Jew in Israel without having an Orthodox Jewish rabbi perform the ceremony, and the rabbi will insist on this proof first.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who the rabbis are trying to screen out.  Half-Jewish people, of course.

http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Article.aspx?id=253365

People who can’t produce this proof have to live together or fly to another country to be legally married, usually Cyprus.

So, how many of us have our maternal great-great-grandmother’s wedding license? Everyone who has your maternal great-great-grandmother’s wedding license, please raise your hand.

Remember, it must be your mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s wedding license. No substitutes will be accepted. <internet grin>

Cordially,

Robin

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Filed under Biracial, Ethiopian Jews, Half-Jewish Celebrities, Half-Jewish Network, Intermarriage, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Multiracial, Who Is A Jew

October 3, 2011 · 1:33 pm

First Half-Jewish Network Blog/Newsletter

October 3, 2011

Hi, Half-Jewish Network members! This is an update and will also test how this blog works as an email newsletter.

Greetings to all of you who are Jewish-identified and observing Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Awe, Yom Kippur (Saturday, October 8), Sukkot (Thursday, October 13) and Simchat Torah (Friday, October 21).

Saturday, October 15 is the saint’s day on the Roman Catholic and Anglican calendars of the great mystic St. Teresa of Avila, the patrilineal grandchild of a Jewish-Christian intermarriage. Her Jewish grandfather and his Christian wife and half-Jewish son were forced to flee one city and move to Avila to escape the Inquisition’s scrutiny.

Advance greetings to everyone, Pagan-identified, secular or just plain partying on Halloween, Monday, October 31.

Advance greetings to all of you who are Christian-identified and will be observing All Saints Day on Tuesday, November 1.

Those of you in Mexico will be observing the Day of the Dead on Wednesday, November 2.

Greetings to our Muslim-identified members observing Eid al-Adha on Monday, November 7.

Update:  I’m in the process of notifying the over 1,000 members of the Half-Jewish Network that we have a new website and that they can now subscribe to this email blog/newsletter.

It will be a slow but steady process, as I cannot just input their email addresses for the newsletter — they must visit the website and sign up. But expect to see the number of  ”followers” of this website rise gradually over the next year.

I will be contacting you every few weeks with news about the group and other items of interest. Feel free to post on our “About/Message Board” or answer questions from other half-Jewish people posted there.

Cordially,

Robin Margolis, Coordinator

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Filed under Half-Jewish Network