At the recent JFCS Interfaith Task Force dinner meeting are, from left, Karen Jimenez, a task force member from Har Sinai Temple in Pennington; guest speaker Rabbi Sam Gordon; Linda Meisel; Eve Coulson; and Richard Fishbane, chair of the Keruv Committee at The Jewish Center in Princeton.
Photo by Debra Levenstein
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March 17, 2009
A chance visit by Rabbi Sam Gordon to the Princeton area in mid-February provided a unique opportunity for the Interfaith Task Force of the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County to broaden its outlook on outreach, said Linda Meisel, JFCS executive director.
A specialist in the field of outreach for the past quarter century, Gordon is the founding rabbi of Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette, Ill., a progressive congregation with outreach to the intermarried and unaffiliated.
On Feb. 17, Gordon addressed a group of about 18 task force members and social workers during a dinner meeting at the Princeton home of Eve Coulson, a member of the task force and the JFCS board.
“There’s no question it was serendipitous,” said Meisel as she sat down with Debra Levenstein, director of prevention and support services for JFCS, to look back on the evening.
“It was an opportunity to hear from someone who has 25 years of experience in outreach,” said Levenstein, who coordinates the Interfaith Task Force. “We see this as part of the whole continuum of our outreach to interfaith families.”
In his presentation, Gordon focused on people who have intermarried within the Jewish community and who are raising their children as Jews, but who have chosen not to convert, according to Meisel. He referred to a paradigm suggested by New York author/therapist Esther Perel — that being a non-Jew while moving within the Jewish community is a little bit like being an immigrant in a new country.
“There are nuances,” Meisel said. “People who don’t convert are sort of like people with green cards. So they practice and their families participate, but they’re not fully invested as citizens.”
Gordon spoke about openness and about instilling a love of Judaism in one’s children, Meisel added.
“He said something I thought was very interesting,” she said. “If they love Judaism, even if they find themselves in an interfaith relationship, they will push for the inclusion of Judaism as their family’s way of life.”
JFCS is planning to host other parlor meetings on the issue, and perhaps even to invite Gordon back, Meisel said. At the same time, Linda Kanner, the agency’s coordinator of interfaith services, is in the process of organizing a support group for intermarried couples, One Couple/Two Faiths. The support group will run for four Wednesdays, April 22 and 29 and May 6 and 13, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Har Sinai Temple in Pennington. The deadline for registration is April 13.
“What we see ourselves doing is facilitating a range of programming in the community,” Meisel said.
The dinner meeting with Gordon gave the participants the tools to look at the issue of outreach to the intermarried through a wider lens, Levenstein said.
“The purpose was to continue the discussion about being open and welcoming and inclusive of all families,” she said. “The intention for the group is to help people to connect with people on a personal level, and to include them in Jewish life.”
For information about joining the One Couple/Two Faiths support group, contact Kanner at the agency at 609-987-8100.
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