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The Mothers Circle: support and educational group for gentile moms raising Jewish children
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Nine days ago I listed a variety of classes for New York Jews of all ages. Today I'm writing about a Jewish class for non-Jews.
Know any Brooklyn moms raising Jewish children but who aren't themselves Jewish?
The East Midwood Jewish Center (EMJC) is offering The Mothers Circle--an outreach
program designed to support non-Jewish moms who are helping to
create Jewish homes. A free series of one hour classes (meeting twice a
month) will explore Jewish traditions and provide resources and
tools.
This
is not a conversion course. The classes emphasize learning, sharing,
and support in a non-preachy setting. The Mothers Circle is a
national program. It is making its debut in Brooklyn at EMJC.
If childcare is needed, a free story-telling and creative play class
for Mothers Circle children is partnered with Mothers
Circle sessions: Joanne Riel, a specialist in early childhood
music, will offer a Jewish-inspired music/creative movement/story class
("Jewjewbees") while the moms are meeting. Think Music Together with a
Jewish Twist. Families who know Joanne's way with kids will know how
fun this class will be. The first meeting will be held on Sunday
October 25, 2009 at 4:00 PM.
The topics of the first four sessions will be:
-
- Getting Acquainted: Introductions; religious memories and experiences.
- Making Jewish Choices: What it means to raise Jewish children and make Jewish parenting choices.
- From Mitzvah to Mensch: Jewish values to instill in children on their paths to becoming caring people.
By
the fifth meeting it will be December and there will be a Hanukkah
session (learn about the holiday's symbols and traditions and discuss
December holiday decisions). The meeting after the Hanukkah meeting
will be on Jewish values. Anita Diamant's book, How To Raise a Jewish Child,
(2008 edition) is part of the curriculum, and EMJC will provide copies
to participants. The Mothers Circle, the Jewjewbees group, and all
materials are made possible by a seed grant to support innovative
Jewish family programming in Brooklyn.
In
Manhattan Parents Inter-Circle, a Mothers Circle affiliated group that
also includes non-Jewish fathers raising Jewish children, has been
meeting at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, located at 7 West 83rd Street,
between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. For more information,
call Rabbi Grushcow at (212) 362-8800, ext. 3025 or email intercircle@rodephsholom.org.
By
now I expect some of our Orthodox and Conservadox readers are asking,
"How can the child of a non-Jewish mother be Jewish?" and/or are
thinking that Mothers Circle must only apply to Reform Judaism which
has patriineal descent. In fact both Orthodox and Conservative Judaism
permit childhood conversion. I know of a Roman Catholic woman married
to an Orthodox Jewish man who agreed that their children would be
raised Jewish; the children were converted in infancy, are being raised
as Jews, attend day school, go to synagogue with their dad, and
have become bnei mitvah. The difference between Orthodox and
Conservative halacha on the identity of the child on the one hand, and
Reform and Reconstructionist patrilineal descent on the other hand, is
that the former requires that the parents take the proactive steps of
converting the child and raising the child as a Jew. It is a mistake to
assume that a child of intermarried parents whose mother is not Jewish
is necessarily not halchically Jewish.
For more info: David Cooper
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Comments
Only Jewish women can give birth to and raise Jewish children. You're like most secular Jewish men who think that Gentile women are superior to Jewish women. I'm sick and tired of all the disrespect that Jewish men have for Jewish women. To you we are nothing but trash and can be replaced by Gentile women. For your information Jewish women are valuable and significant!
I'm sick of Jewish women being treated like insignificant trash in the Gentile and Jewish communities. We are the only women capable of raising Jewish children because we were born and raised Jewish! No one else can do the job.
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