Social worker Linda Kanner is charged with helping families navigate the choppy waters of interfaith relationships.
Continuing outreach
As Linda Kanner works to get the word out about resources and services for interfaith families, JFCS continues its outreach efforts in the region. Together with the Board of Rabbis of Princeton Mercer Bucks, the agency is cosponsoring A Taste of Judaism, a three-session course for the unaffiliated, at two synagogues this month.
Introduction to Judaism, a 15-week course that delves more deeply into Jewish theology, prayer, history, holidays, and life-cycle events, will be offered at an area synagogue sometime in January.
In addition, JFCS is planning Take a Spin with Us at Hanukah, a public-space program, on Sunday, Dec. 14, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Border’s Books and Music in Princeton, and reprising Walking on Eggshells, a workshop for the parents of intermarried children, on Monday, Dec. 15, at 6:30 p.m., at Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor. The registration deadline for Walking on Eggshells is Monday, Dec. 8.
For information about any of these programs, call Kanner at JFCS, 609-987-8100.
November 18, 2008
Linda Kanner says that it’s easy to be taken by surprise by the thorny questions that can arise in interfaith families.
Should you try to raise your children in more than one faith?
How do you explain the cross on the wall of one grandmother’s home and the mezuza on the doorpost of the other’s?
How do you, as a Jew, cope with the prospect of attending the baptism of your newborn grandchild?
Kanner, a clinical social worker with expertise in interfaith issues, is on board to answer such questions as coordinator of interfaith services at the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County.
Her appointment in early September marks the first time the agency has hired a staff member whose key responsibility is to reach out to families facing the challenges of interfaith relationships.
In her new role, Kanner is serving as a clinical counselor, developing a page for interfaith families on the JFCS website (www.jfcsonline.org), and creating a monthly e-mail newsletter for interfaith families.
She is also reaching out to rabbis and educational directors to assess needs in the community and developing workshops and programs on the issue.
“I want to be a resource for couples, parents, and grandparents who are navigating the interfaith waters,” Kanner said in a recent phone interview. “I just want to let people know I’m here.”
Reaching out to interfaith families is nothing new for JFCS, according to Debra Levenstein, director of prevention and support services for the agency. What is new is a grant from a local community member that made it possible for the agency to hire Kanner and redouble that effort.
“It’s not a new focus,” said Levenstein, who declined to reveal the name of the donor or the amount of the grant. “Every year, we did a little bit more and a little bit more. But this time we have a funder who is giving us the tool we need to give the attention that’s needed to the issue.
“It allows us to expand our services to families living in interfaith relationships or people who have interfaith relationships in their families,” she said.
Kanner said there are a range of issues that go along with having two different faiths in one household.
“They’re not the kinds of issues people will talk about with their bridge group,” Kanner said. “I want people to know that when they have these questions and concerns, they can come here. I would like JFCS to be a resource for people dealing with these issues.”
Kanner brings to her new position a broad background in counseling, programming, and education. Raised in Vineland, she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Brandeis University and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.
She has worked in substance-abuse prevention for the Philadelphia public schools, as a program coordinator for the Navy Family Service Center at the Philadelphia Naval Yard, as a pediatric counselor at St. Peter’s Medical Center in New Brunswick, as an adjunct professor of sociology and social work at Bucks County Community College, and as a clinician at JFCS from 1990 to 1992.
Beginning in 1993, she worked for the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia as a clinical social worker and as coordinator of Faithways, its interfaith family support network. Kanner now serves on the advisory board of the network, which has since become an independent organization known as Interfaithways.
The mother of three children, she lives in Yardley, Pa.
What she learned along the way, Kanner said, is that it’s one thing to know the statistics about intermarriage — about 50 percent of Jews who marry intermarry — and quite another to live the reality of it.
“It’s new to every family whose child marries someone of a different religion,” she said. “It’s a new experience for each family going through it. So letting people know that there are resources available is very important. That’s what I’m trying to do here.”
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