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

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

Dear Friends:

Greeting to everyone who celebrates Ashura (December 5), Hanukkhah (first day begins at sunset on December 20), Christmas (December 25) and Kwanzaa (December 26), and wishing you a wonderful holiday(s).

We are trying an experiment in this newsletter — the links to other articles are embedded as underlined text. Let us know if you have any problem reaching other articles by clicking on the underlined text in the stories below.

News Summary

1. Israeli Government Urges Israeli Jews Not to Marry American Jews

The Israeli government recently released a series of ads in America directed towards Israeli Jews living in the United States, urging Israeli Jews not to marry American Jews and live in America.

I know that many of us who are half-Jewish are used to seeing media notices urging Jews not to marry Christians, Muslims and other non-Jews, but I never thought I’d see an ad urging Israeli Jews not to marry American Jews. New low!  Here is the link to Israeli videos opposing marriage to American Jews.

Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the ads withdrawn after protests against them poured in from the Jewish world,  and the ad campaign was said to have been conducted without his knowledge.

But the question remains:  why would these ads have been created in the first place?  Is Israeli Jews marrying American Jews the new ‘intermarriage’?

2.  Israeli Half-Jewish Woman In Court to Get Permission to Marry

The Israel Reform (Judaism) Action Center (IRAC) has an account of its current court battle — Israeli continues to deny the children of Jewish fathers and Christian, Muslim and other non-Jewish mothers the right to marry other Jews in Israel. 

What You Can Do About This:  Sign up for IRAC’s free email newsletter.  You can also send them a donation. If you do either or both of these things, please mention that the Half-Jewish Network referred you to them. I promised them years ago that we’d be their friends.

3.  The “Celebrity Exception”

I have long been troubled by the glaring contrast between how the  Jewish community worldwide, including the American Jewish community, treats wealthy and/or famous half-Jewish people – even ones who identify as Christian or members of other cultures – differently from those of us who are not wealthy or famous.  The Jewish Outreach Institute coined the term “celebrity exception” to describe this problem.

“Celebrity exception” half-Jewish people are treated as Jews even when they identify as devout Catholics and have, perhaps, one Jewish grandparent.

“Celebrity exception” half-Jewish people are invited to Jewish functions, spoken of as current or potential Jews, offered easy conversions to Judaism, brought into Judaism with no conversions at all even after years of practicing other faiths, and warmly welcomed by Israel and Diaspora (outside of Israel) Jewish communities in ways that the rest of us  are not.

However, there is a downside to being a “celebrity exception” half-Jewish person.  If such a celebrity gets into trouble, some segments of the Jewish community then vent their disappointment with them. Here is a link to a recent story about baseball player Ryan Joseph Braun, nicknamed “The Hebrew Hammer.”

Braun has a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Many members of his father’s family were killed in the Holocaust. Braun was apparently raised secular – no bar mitzvah and no celebration of the Jewish holidays. Braun apparently identifies as a Jew and received a lot of favorable publicity from the Jewish community.

But now Braun may be in trouble — he’s been accused of using steroids – and if this Tablet article is any indicator, he won’t get much sympathy or support from the Jewish community. The message in a Tablet article seems to be that the Jewish community will only support half-Jewish people who are always successful and don’t make any blunders or get accused of any crimes — to be fair to the article’s author, he questions these assumptions and thinks that they should be reexamined.

Sage Rosenfels – a Jewish football player with a Jewish father and (apparently) a Christian mother – is described on some websites as a Jewish athlete. But he has incurred the disfavor of one Jewish fan because he is apparently  letting his Christian wife raise their children as Christians.

I also spotted an article about Marcel Proust, an early 20^th century half-Jewish writer, on a Jewish website which described him as a Jewish writer.

I wrote in the comment section – and wrote the author of the article privately —  that I was grateful to see Proust’s Jewish ‘half’  acknowledged, but the author of the article needed to understand that Proust – who had a Catholic father and a Jewish mother – was raised as a Catholic and always identified as a Catholic.

Proust never hid being half-Jewish and spoke of it as a part of his life. One of his novels, “Swann’s Way” chronicles the romantic misadventures of a wealthy Frenchman who is one-quarter Jewish and has inherited the surname “Swann” from a Jewish grandfather who married a Protestant woman.

The author ignored my comment and spoke about Proust as a Jew in another article. I see this behavior towards half-Jewish people in many Jewish media and books.

The underlying assumption seems to be: only people with two Jewish parents have the right to determine how half-Jewish people identify — half-Jewish people themselves have no right to decide their own spiritual or ethnic identities.

What You Can Do About This:  If you hear anyone say that a half-Jewish athlete or celebrity is “Jewish,” ask them questions:

* does the half-Jewish celebrity actually identify as Jewish?

* is it respectful to decide that a half-Jewish person must be Jewish or “not Jewish” based on a Jewish fan’s need for more Jewish writers or athletes rather than on what the celebrity actually feels?

* if a half-Jewish celebrity identifies as “Jewish” and has been welcomed into the Jewish community, is the Jewish fan willing to help other half-Jewish people enter the Jewish community who may not be wealthy or famous?

* if a half-Jewish celebrity identifies as “Christian” or as a member of another non-Jewish culture,  could the Jewish fan consider regarding the celebrity as a member of the Jewish ‘family’ – a cousin – deserving of some support or fans even if the half-Jewish celebrity has joined his/her other ‘half’?

* wouldn’t respectful treatment be better for the celebrity’s relationship with Judaism than berating a half-Jewish celebrity for adopting his other parent’s Christian, Muslim or Buddhist faith?

* should a half-Jewish celebrity be abandoned when he/she gets into trouble simply because the half-Jewish celebrity has disappointed Jewish fans’ desire for a perfect Jewish writer or athlete?

At the Half-Jewish Network we try to treat each person with the labels and identification that they themselves have chosen. We’re not perfect and we’ve sometimes made mistakes in this area in the past, but it is an area where we try to be careful.

4. Announcement regarding Israeli Jewish and Arab music stars concert for peace

I have been asked by a past founder of the Half-Jewish Network to provide a Youtube link to a March 2012 concert featuring Achinoam Nini (Noa) and Mira Awad that will raise money for the Abraham Fund, an organization working for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians living in Israel, including advocating teaching Arabic to Israeli Jewish school children.

The Half-Jewish Network takes an interest in this work because there are more than 20,000 Jewish-Arab intermarried couples in Israel, and their children are affected by any improvements in relationships between Israeli Jews and Palestinians.

5. Churches for a Middle East Peace is offering spiritual resources — prayers and meditations — to be used in praying for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians during the current Christian Advent season.

6.  What you can do for the Half-Jewish Network during the holidays — do you have a family member, friend or colleague who might enjoy our newsletter?

Please email it to that person and encourage them to come to the Half-Jewish Network website and sign up for our free email newsletter! Thank you.

Wishing you an excellent holiday(s),

Cordially,

Robin Margolis, Coordinator

Dear Friends:

You see that the Half-Jewish Network keeps its promises — we are contacting you only once a month! <internet smile>

Here are some news items that I thought might interest you.  (I wish to thank Al and Joel — you know who you are — for sending me some of these news articles!)

1.  In a 9/1/11 article in the American Jewish newspaper, the “Forward,” titled “Last Ethiopian Jews Finally Make Exodus to Israel,” you will see at the bottom of the article some very disturbing news.

Not all of the remaining Ethiopian Jews are apparently being allowed to make aliyah to Israel. Those who have a Jewish father and a mother who is not Jewish — the patrilineal Jews — are being excluded.

You will notice that I have left a comment expressing my disapproval in the “Comments” section. You may wish to leave a comment of your own.

http://forward.com/articles/142154/#ixzz1dsSM0Ri9

2. “Who Isn’t a Jew?” a 10/23/11 article in “The Jerusalem Post” describes how a well-known Israeli writer with two Jewish parents has had himself legally declared a non-Jew.

He is protesting the fact that because he married an American Christian, his daughter and grandson are officially “not Jewish” in Israel.

http://m.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=84242441&cat=2

3. “Outside the Box” — new film being made by Lacey Schwartz on growing up half-African-American and half-Jewish. The author of the film seeks donations to help her complete the film.

http://www.outsidetheboxfilm.com/

4. “Conservative Synagogues Crack Open Door to Intermarried Families,” published in the “Forward” on 8/31/11, discusses how some Conservative synagogues are allowing interfaith couples full membership in their shuls.

http://www.forward.com/articles/142112/#ixzz1dsb38a89

5. There are very few studies of the Holocaust that mention half-Jewish people, so I thought some of you might be interested in “Jews and Intermarriage in Nazi Austria”:

http://books.google.com/books?id=9-TJWTvksGcC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=%22steven+beller%22+%22evan+burr+bukey%22&source=bl&ots=bVCxKggNfA&sig=kbwhUlkC2gp7o_jB6lV7Vk7i19o&hl=en&ei=OZWMToSOAoWyhAfS4tGGCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

6. Some of you have expressed an interest in occasionally hearing about half-Jewish people who lived as Christians. I recommend an excellent essay about the poet Denise Levertov, who was raised in the Church of England.

Her father came from a Hasidic Jewish family and is said to have been a descendant of the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty. He became an Anglican minister. Her mother grew up in Wales and was raised as a Congregationalist Christian.

Levertov was interested in both of her “halves” and wrote much spiritual poetry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Levertov

7.  If you are interested in receiving a free weekly email newsletter with information about Israel and interfaith families, plus other topics relating to Israel’s current problems in this area, I recommend that you subscribe to:

http://religionandstateinisrael.blogspot.com/

8. Holiday Reminders: I wish all of our American readers a Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 24.

Erev (the beginning) of Hanukkah falls after sunset on Tuesday, December 20 this year and lasts for eight days. Christmas will take place (except for the Eastern Orthodox Christians) on Sunday, December 25. The Eastern Orthodox Christmas will fall on January 7.

9. I am continuing to notify the over 1,000 members of the Half-Jewish Network who contacted us over the last six years that we have a new website and that they can now subscribe to this email blog/newsletter.

Some of them have changed email addresses, so I may not be able to reach them all. I am slowly reconnecting with as many of them as I can reach, one by one.

10. Don’t forget to check the “About/Message Board” on our website and help me respond to the questions from half-Jewish people from all over the world:

http://half-jewish.net/message-board/

Cordially,

Robin Margolis, Coordinator

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