Center for Radically Inclusive Judaism

10/23/2026

Great story about the rebuilding of 18Doors and its executive director Adam Pollack - may you go from strength to strength!

In 11 years, Adam Pollack went from an 18Doors participant to executive director tasked with helping the financially shaky nonprofit recover.

10/22/2026

Who’s talking about interfaith family inclusion? The URJ Biennial is; the JFNA General Assembly – maybe, not likely; Project Prism – don’t know yet.

How do people feel about interfaith marriage. An Embark rabbi – very positive; a father who’s son intermarried – conflicted; Stephen Flatow – doesn’t get that lamenting interfaith marriage and how children are raised undermines the welcome and encouragement he says he wants.

This and more in October's News from the Center.

10/22/2026

Stephen Flatow is a prominent Jewish leader whose daughter was murdered in a Palestinian terror attack in 1995. In “Zionism needs no progressive permission” he defends religious Zionism as worthy of support by progressives, in addition to “secular, liberal, democratic Zionism.” In doing so, he says that much of American Jewish life has moved for generations towards an identity “defined increasingly by ethnicity, culture, politics and family memory rather than religious observance, Jewish learning and obligation.”

There is a lot to be said for Mr. Flatow’s argument that transmission of Jewish identity needs or is certainly strengthened by the religious aspects of Judaism. Unfortunately, he bases his argument on the high rate of interfaith marriage the low rate of raising children Jewish by religion among the intermarried, stating that the American Jewish “experiment” has not worked.

He says that the figures “do not prove that cultural Judaism causes intermarriage or that intermarriage alone creates a weaker Jewish identity. Pew warns against drawing that conclusion.” But then he says that “People whose Jewish identity is already weaker may simply be more likely to marry non-Jews.”

He also says that not “every Jew must become Orthodox,” that an intermarried Jew is not less worthy, and that children from intermarried families should not be pushed away. “Quite the opposite: All Jews should be welcomed and encouraged to deepen their connection to the Jewish people.”

Mr. Flatow doesn’t get it. Trashing interfaith marriage effectively expresses that intermarried Jews are less worthy. It completely undermines the effort to welcome interfaith families and encourage them to deepen their connection that Mr. Flatow says he supports.

The Jewish connection to Israel is not a political preference or a cultural feature. It runs through prayer, law, scripture and history.

10/14/2026

Another nice article about an Embark group, this one in Atlanta. Rabbi Daniel Dorsch, who leads Conservative Congregation Etz Chayim in Marietta, says the sense of welcome by a rabbi that couples get may be the most important measure of the program. "I hope that the program teaches interfaith couples that there is a space for them in organized Jewish life, not only in a synagogue, but also that there is a rabbi who cares about them and welcomes them into the fold with open arms."

Embark Atlanta welcomes interfaith couples.

10/14/2026

An interesting piece by David Cygielman about how the Jim Joseph Foundation's Project Prism research on young Jewish adults supports Mem Global's strategy to build flexible, informal and low pressure home-based spaces.

Cygielman notes the research finding that to participate in Jewish experiences that create belonging, young adults must already have some sense of connection, but that many young adults don't have “formative” experiences that contribute to feelings of connection.

It's striking to me that no mention is made of young adults who are partnered with people from different faith backgrounds, and how that may factor into their feelings of belonging.

I previously noted about the Project Prism research (link in comments) that 21% of respondents said that a “more welcoming or inclusive atmosphere” was a driver of increased relevance and appeal, and expressed interest in knowing if respondents from interfaith families (58% of the sample) said that meant a more welcoming or inclusive atmosphere withrespect to those in or from interfaith relationships. I understand that further analyses of the data are underway and look forward to learning more about that.

https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/flexible-informal-low-pressure-the-recipe-for-engaging-jewish-young-adults/?

When we started Mem Global – formerly Moishe House – in 2006, we weren’t thinking about how to build an organization or what the long-term strategy would look like. We simply wanted to create something for ourselves and our peers who were too old for college campuses but too young for the esta...

10/10/2026

Sounds like a very interesting play, opening October 15 in Winnipeg, about an interfaith couple (for fifteen years) deciding whether to circumcise their baby - will be on the lookout for reviews.

Winnipeg Jewish Theatre opens its 2026–27 season with The Cut, an engaging and deeply human play that explores the complicated intersections of faith, cultural identity, relationships and parenthood. Written by award-winning Toronto playwright JordI Mand, the production takes a seemingly straightf...

10/05/2026

This is a very important essay. It reveals a lot about the lingering negative attitudes toward interfaith marriage that many Jews still have. The author is an Jewish American journalist, a self-described “practicing Jew” and son of a Holocaust survivor. He felt it his duty “to keep the chain of our family’s Jewish ancestry from breaking” -- but his son Ben married a Cuban woman who is not Jewish.

The author initially felt “emotionally wounded, defeated.” He had prayed Ben, who went to Hebrew school and had a bar mitzvah, would marry someone Jewish, but he understood the consequences of living in a multicultural world, and hadn’t objected when Ben brought home girlfriends who weren’t Jewish, or made his expectations clear.

For him, the “question was how to respond when one of your loved ones makes a central life decision that goes against the core of who you are.” At his first meeting with the couple he was sullen, barely said a word. He turned into an “ethnocentric tribalist, … feeling betrayed, even insulted.” He would “hear the voices of my ancestors, my parents, aunts and uncles, judging me for letting someone in my family ‘stray’ outside the fold.”

He had two grandsons, “both of whom had brises and were given Hebrew names, a process that [Ben and his wife] chose together after exploring their meaning and finding ways to honor Ben’s grandfathers. About those steps to becoming part of a Jewish community, he says, “I wanted more… [T]hey lived in a town without a synagogue, the closest two hours away.”

Ten years on, he felt under a “cloud of sadness,” “disappointed in a reality that continues challenging me to accept my son’s choices.” When he and Ben finally started talking about it, Ben said, “I don’t want to say I regret my marriage in any way. But as I’ve gotten older and probably especially now that I have kids, and post Oct. 7th, this has carried more meaning than in my mid-20s. Should I have married Jewish? Probably. Did I let you (and my grandparents) down? Likely.” But he also said he was not “abandoning his connection to our community,” had put “much thought, effort and wrestling … into his relationship with Judaism,” and searched for ways to connect them to their Jewish roots.

The author realizes that his son hadn’t left, had kept inviting him closer; it was the author who had “stepped back from the warmth and called it loyalty to my ancestors, to the tradition.” He still struggles with his fears “that I’ve let the chain break.” But he wants to be a different father, to love his son back.

I have two main thoughts. First, Jewish parents making their expectations clear that they want their children to marry Jews in many if not most cases will not only not prevent interfaith marriage, but will instead risk pushing the interfaith couples from Jewish engagement. People who are told a community disapproves of what they did will not want to engage with that community.

Second, what strikes me most here is the father thinking that what’s important is whether his son’s spouse is Jewish, not whether his son’s family and children are Jewishly engaged. (That seems to be what many of the commenters on the essay think, too.) He thinks that the act of intermarrying itself is disloyal to the tradition, strays from the fold, “breaks the chain.” He seems oblivious that interfaith families can and do engage with and continue the tradition, unsatisfied that his grandchildren look like they will be part of the chain. He only starts to realize after ten years that because of the sadness and disapproval he thought was loyalty to the tradition, he missed the opportunity to love his son’s family, to embrace them – and to support and encourage their engagement with the tradition.

His intermarriage awakened my fears about betraying our Jewish ancestors. It took 10 years to understand that the living were waiting for my love

09/30/2026

Embark rabbi says “The people who are going to keep Judaism alive aren’t all going to be Jewish.”

Patrilineal Jew, her identity denied and rejected, asserts “I no longer need anyone to tell me what I am and whether I belong. I know what I inherited. I know who I am.”

Rabbi Rick Jacobs credits the Reform movement’s embrace of interfaith families for its growth – but is the movement prioritizing interfaith family engagement?

Rabbi Al Axelrad z”l was an early pioneer of rabbinic officiation for interfaith couples. Some press mentioned that, some didn’t.
Commentary from Canada, the traditional perspective, Nobody Wants This coming back – all this and more.

Learn more at https://www.cfrij.com/september-2026-news-embark-matrilineality-reform-movement-rabbi-al-axelrad/.

09/22/2026

Rabbi Al Axelrad was a pioneering advocate for rabbinic officiation at weddings of interfaith couples. He was very supportive when InterfaithFamily (now 18Doors) was getting started.

As the Wikipedia entry about him says (link in comments),

"Beginning in the first years of his rabbinate, Axelrad advocated for rabbinic officiation at marriages of a Jew and a non-Jew, although only under limited circumstances. Noting that supportive non-Jewish spouses could be involved in raising Jewish children, he proposed that rabbis should be understanding of a non-Jewish partner's reluctance to convert to Judaism for any of a variety of reasons. For couples willing to raise Jewish children, Axelrad proposed that the cooperation and support of a rabbi at the outset of the marriage could be crucial in their decision to do so."

09/17/2026

A nice, positive statement from Rabbi Rick Jacobs.

Rabbi Schindler’s stance to lovingly embrace interfaith families was “the most brilliant shift… [looking] back, absolutely critical.”

“[T]his idea that intermarriage looks like decline is a mistaken assumption.”

“We have focused on bringing interfaith families into the mainstream of Jewish life and we are now succeeding.”

“We are now the largest movement. Part of the reason is our embrace of interfaith families.”

My question is whether the Reform movement is coasting on its laurels at this point, or proactively planning to do more to attract more interfaith families. Only 13% of interfaith families belong to synagogues. For a synagogue movement, that data should be a spur to focused action.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, spoke with Philadelphia Jewish Exponent about antisemitism and other Jewish issues of the day.