By Susanna PerrettAs the partner who is not Jewish, raising a Jewish family in the Chicago area, I have often felt like a guest within the Jewish community. But the fact is, I have chosen to be a part of this group for better or for worse.
Less than 24 hours before my children were to attend Hebrew school, our synagogue was vandalized. The perpetrator was caught in the act of breaking windows at the synagogue. He wrote hateful messages on the door of the building. I know that this man is very unstable. I know that while he told his mother he wanted to kill Jews, he was not sane enough to carry out his plan. That said, had he choose to do this just 24 hours later my children would have been in the building and I would have been at Starbucks getting coffee. One of the windows he broke is in my baby girl’s classroom.
I recently walked into my children’s public school and found a religiously insensitive display. I worked with the administration to have the offensive parts removed, but the response from the other parents was not one of support. I was called names that ranged from filthy Jew to unpatriotic (it was a Veteran’s Day display) to hater. I was called out for removing the bibles from the display (the reason they were there was to represent the faith that sustains veterans). When I pointed out that a Christian bible did not sustain my Jewish veteran father-in-law, I was told I was wrong.
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