Why Mormons can’t be anti-Zionists

by Mark Paredes for JewishJournal.com

After reading Ray Filar’s inane, vapid essay on why she is an “anti-Zionist Jew,” I googled the phrase “anti-Zionist Mormon” to see whether one of my coreligionists had published a similar piece. Although there are slightly more Mormons than Jews in the world, I was pleased – though not surprised – to find that no Mormon has written such an article. While I have come across Mormons who have criticized specific actions by the State of Israel, only Mormons who are unfamiliar with church history and doctrine could possibly oppose Zionism.

The Mormon Church has supported the Jewish people and Israel for all of its 184 years. In fact, Israel is the only country in the world whose creation was officially supported by the LDS Church. In its earliest days, the Church called on Jews to gather to Palestine and form a state. The first edition of the first Church newspaper announced that it “comes to bring good tidings of great joy to all people, but more especially to the House of Israel scattered abroad, for the Lord hath set His hand again the second time to restore them to the lands of their inheritance.”

In response to an article entitled “What Do Mormons Believe?” written by a newspaper editor, an 1834 article in a Church newspaper stated: “We believe that God has set His hand to recover the remnant of His people, Israel; and that the time is near when He will bring them from the four winds and reinstate them upon their own lands which He gave their fathers by covenant.”

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Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur - Everything You Want to Know

This article has been reprinted with permission from InterfaithFamily

Rosh Hashanah starts the evening of September 24, 2014; September 13, 2015.
Yom Kippur starts the evening of October 3, 2014; September 22, 2015.

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are also known as the High Holy Days or the Days of Awe. These holidays usually fall in September or October and are often characterized by long synagogue services and a focus on repentance.

The Jewish High Holidays are not always the most popular holidays in interfaith family families. How do you and your partner negotiate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the most synagogue-centric holidays on the Jewish calendar? Read InterfaithFamily.com's articles, resources and links for ways to make the High Holidays more inclusive.

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My Son's Curious About God and My Wife Doesn't Believe

From The Seesaw in The Jewish Daily Forward

Our Boy Is Starting to Ask the Big Questions

I’m a Jewish man married to a non-Jewish, not at all religious woman. I believe in God and she doesn’t. Our 5-year-old is starting to ask the big questions about what God is and whether we believe and we now feel like we have to get our story straight on this whole God thing, but don’t know where to start. Should we explain to him that we have different point of views and just be honest? Or, my wife’s idea, should we come up with one answer that is less about us and more abstract and inclusive? If the latter, any ideas? She says she doesn’t want her lack of belief to get in the way with his potential for belief. Help.

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How Does Your Synagogue Handle Candle Lighting with Interfaith Families?

This article has been reprinted with permission from InterfaithFamily

InterfaithFamily/Your Community worked together on this project to gather information about the ritual policies of synagogues in the IFF/Your Community regions of Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco Bay Area. All rabbis were asked the same question, below, and their responses follow. The opinions expressed do not reflect a policy of InterfaithFamily, but are meant to be an educational resource to be shared and discussed with the greater Jewish community.

In many synagogues, the parent of a child whose Bar/Bat Mitzvah service the following Shabbat morning is invited to recite the blessing for lighting the candles at the Friday evening service. Since lighting the candles is a brachah shel mitzvah, referring to Jews being commanded to perform the act, this can be a complicated issue when one of the parents of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah is not Jewish.

What is your synagogue’s policy on candle lighting? Who can say the blessing over the Shabbat candles at Erev Shabbat services? Specifically, can a mother or father who is not Jewish recite the blessing the Friday evening of the child’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah? If not, is there an alternate role they can play?

A Team Effort

Congregation Sherith Israel of San Francisco, CA (Reform)

For Shabbat evening blessings (candles, wine, challah) I/we call up to assist the family (usually parents, grandparents, other relatives) and then ask the Jewish parent to actually light the candles (or a grandmother or another Jewish member), the child to hold and lead the kiddush and the parents together to hold onto the challah with me as we all join in the brachah (blessing over the challah).

-Rabbi Larry Raphael

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Does Junior Need Jewish Preschool — or Is Shabbat Sing-Along Enough?

From The Seesaw on The Jewish Daily Forward

My Wife and I Don’t Know Where to Send Our Daughter….

My wife and I are both half-Jewish. I was raised more observant than she was, but both of us very much felt and feel American first and Jewish second. We are currently debating whether we should send our daughter to a Jewish pre-K and kindergarten program or to a public one. Pros? Give her a Jewish community and identity that she could build on throughout her life. Cons? Costs a lot of money; She wouldn’t be as used to the elementary school, where the classes are located, as those who took them there; She will enter school with the idea that being Jewish makes her different somehow instead of something that you do after or in addition to regular school. Maybe a Shabbat sing-along would be enough?

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Rabbi Preferred, Judaism Essential

This article has been reprinted with permission from InterfaithFamily

By Molly Ritvo*

Long before I met my now husband, I remember having tea in a rabbi’s home, after my grandmother passed. I recall the afternoon sun casting a slight glow around the wise rabbi. As I bit into a molasses cookie made by the rabbi’s loving wife, I remember him saying “I feel like Jewish people who intermarry miss out on a Jewish experience.” I remember his words hitting me hard. I was confused and saddened by his remark. I also remember not questioning why the rabbi said that.

As I left the rabbi’s house with even more cookies wrapped up in a small brown bag, my thoughts wandered to the many families I know that have only one Jewish parent. I recalled Shabbat dinners where the blessings were led by both parents and I remember attending Hanukkah parties filled with people from all different backgrounds lighting candles together while their children played. I thought of close family friends who have known me my whole life and who exemplified the word mensch, yet who may not know the first thing about Judaism. I also recalled my mother once telling me that all marriages are intermarriages in a way, as everyone has a different spiritual and religious background. Both of my parents came from Jewish families from the same Boston suburb, yet they expressed and felt their Jewishness in vastly different ways. I grew up believing and understanding that being Jewish comes from within and has nothing to do with labels.

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*Molly is the Content Manager at Jvillage Network

Unique Considerations for Interfaith Parents

This article has been reprinted with permission from InterfaithFamily

According to the traditional Jewish movements (Orthodox and Conservative), a child is not Jewish unless he or she has a Jewish mother.

According to the progressive Jewish movements (Reform and Reconstructionist), a child with only one Jewish parent--either mother or father--is Jewish as long as the child is raised to identify as Jewish. Holding a bris or simchat bat for your infant can be the first step to raising the child Jewish.

Most mohels are Orthodox and therefore abide by the traditional definition of a Jewish child. In many cases they will agree to perform a circumcision for a mother who is not Jewish with the understanding that the child will later be immersed in a ritual bath (mikvah) to be converted to Judaism. If the father is not Jewish but the mother is, the mohel will skip the Hebrew line from the traditional brit ceremony where the father delegates his responsibility to circumcise the child to the mohel.

Mohels trained in the Reform tradition will perform a brit milah for children of interfaith parents without the expectation of further steps to conversion.

Generally speaking, mohels are quite accommodating to the needs of parents, so if you would like to have a grandmother or relative who is not Jewish to be involved in the ceremony, don't be afraid to include them. In rare cases a very traditional Orthodox mohel may insist that the sandek, the man who holds the baby, be Jewish.

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