"God wrote a book, and named it 'The World.' God wrote a commentary on that book, and named it 'Torah.'" So said the 19^th century Hasidic Master, R. Tzadok HaKohen Rabinowitz, of Lublin.

Often we People of the Book focus our Jewish learning on ideas, tales, history, language, lore and law. Sometimes our study should focus simply on better understanding our society and ourselves.

I was particularly pleased with the richness of our communal learning this past month in our Shabbaton on "Intermarriage and the American Jewish Family." Thank you to all who presented and who attended and discussed during our three sessions. I hope you feel, as I do, that we came to understand ourselves better.

I would sum up what I learned this way:

Be strong and courageous and hope in God. As long American Jews find gratifying experiences when they enter our communal doors, we need not despair that people will choose to be Jews and will raise new generations of Jews, even if their parents or spouses are not Jews.

But there is no tribe anymore. Don't expect ethnicity to have enough gravity to keep Jews inside our boundaries. Maybe that's not so bad. Maybe living in an increasingly multi-racial, multi-cultural community will erode the residual chauvinism that everyone with a yiddisher kop knows we can be guilty of.

To specify those points a bit:

From the wide-angle lens that social science researchers Pearl Beck, Bethamie Horowitz and Charles Kadushin shared, I learned that there is no typical intermarried family, so it is unhelpful to treat all families as if intermarriage were a single, unitary phenomenon. Admittedly, across the population, most intermarried families do have looser ties to Jewish community, tradition and practice than most in-married families. But often that depends on what kinds of connections those individuals had to begin with. Were they highly engaged or largely disconnected before their marriages?

When Jews with a strong structure of positive Jewish education and experiences intermarry, they have a reasonably good record of raising another generation who will feel itself part of Am Israel. And widespread intermarriage could even work to our advantage, numerically speaking, since so many more individuals might be involved in raising Jewish families.

Still, that path is not always easy, and tends to produces less intense Jewish behaviors. Pearl Beck reported from her research that children of intermarried families express positive associations with their Jewishness and the Jewish community, but by and large do not practice Judaism. (I thought this was one of the most interesting observations of the weekend.)

Still, it is no cause for mass freak-out by American Jewish policy makers. It is certainly no warrant to write off intermarried families. As one member remarked about her own family, there is no guarantee that intermarried families will be less connected to Judaism. Of she and her two siblings, the in-married one is the least connected, and the two-intermarried siblings are more intensely linked to Jewish practice and community. Perhaps this is because they have to work harder to maintain their links, she speculated.

The best hope for Jewish continuity is that our communities will embrace people when they walk through our doors, esteeming them as God's children, and sharing their important life experiences.

Rabbi Chuck Simon spoke in this vein, describing outreach initiatives of his work at the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs. He noted that, to his surprise, his membership of committed Conservative lay leaders around the country had significant intermarriage in their families, and sought guidance in responding. He learned that too many synagogues - sometimes reflexively, sometimes intentionally- place obstacles before intermarried Jews and the "outsiders" in their familes.

For instance, many shuls treat intermarried Jews as single members, not family members, and send their mailings only the Jewish adult in the household, not to both spouses. (For the record, at AC, only Jews can be formal members of the synagogue - a fact relevant only for rare congregational voting - but have family memberships for intermarried households including high holiday tickets, and we send mail to whichever adults are listed on your membership applications.)

An open community, on the other hand, conveys to all its member households that we're glad you're here, and we value your participation. He found that couples generally understand when Conservative rabbis will not perform intermarriages, as long as the clergy and synagogue staff are warm, and are available as resources for their subsequent Jewish lives.

Another guest speaker, Sherry Israel of Brandeis movingly related her and her late husband Rabbi Dick Israel's experiences when their son married a non-Jewish woman, but committed to raising a Jewish family. Mingling professional and personal reflections, she conveyed the interplay of shame, disappointment, love and support that they felt.

Despite years of anticipatory disavowals, and over his intense objections, Dick at last agreed to attend his son's wedding. But he never actually made it - having been hit by a car on the morning of the wedding. "The Kadosh Baruch Hu sure plays rough," he said from his hospital bed.

Those presenters were terrific. But certainly the high point of the weekend was the personal statements from members of the community, who spoke about their parents, their kids and their relationships. Three of the families represented were intermarried Jewish women and non-Jewish men raising Jewish children, and one was a Jewish family, in which a non-Jewish woman married a Jewish man and subsequently converted before their daughter was born.

They shared stories of disapproving parents - more Catholic than Jewish - cultural differences ("I'm not interrupting you; we're having a conversation!") and occasional unkind reactions from within the organized Jewish community.

But the dominant experience they related was of discovering the possibilities for rich Jewish living in their homes. Admittedly, our population sample was not the national average, as two of the families even sent their kids through Jewish day school. But our speakers related that Jewish culture and religious life enhanced their families with beauty and meaning.

My favorite story of the weekend came from Brian Toomey, who told of his first Simhat Torah at AC. He had always been a book lover, and felt out of place in his hometown. That night he realized that he had entered a culture where people danced with books! This was a culture in which he would want to raise his son, even if he himself would not choose to covert.

What a moment of affirmation for Jewish life! Is pervasive intermarriage likely to enhance intense Jewish commitment across North America? I am afraid not. Would I prefer that those marrying Jews convert? You bet.

But can intermarried Jews raise Jewish families? Can they study Torah? Can they perform mitzvot? Can communities like this one help them on their journeys? We should be proud to answer yes.

WINTER BLOOD DRIVE
Sunday, January 6, 10am-3:15pm

Tu BiShevat Family Seder

GENERAL DONATIONS  

Vivian Awner in honor of Cantor Natasha Hirschhorn and Shirei Chesed;

in honor of being named Kallat Bereishit; in honor of Eliezer Hanft's Bar Mitzvah and Shoshana Shapiro's Bat Mitzvah

Corinne Boren in memory of her father, Joseph Boren

Deborah Brodie in honor of the birth of Elisheva Beyla, grandchild of Anne and Leon Hoffman; in honor of the birth of Lev Matan to Ariela Dubler and Jesse Furman; in memory of Barrie Raik's father, Abraham Goldman; Eleanore Zak's mother, Sonja Karpus; Dana Kurzweil's father, Julius Kurzweil; and Peter Silverman's father, Alex Silverman

Michael Gottsegen and Vicki Brower in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Green Kronfeld and Nathan Schleifer's father, Abraham Schleifer

Naomi and Steven Brunnlehrman in honor of the birth of Leonard and Lois Sharzer's grandson, Dante Benjamin Gutrecht

Marlene Cooper in honor of Harry and Bessie Aronovitz

Freda and Evan Eisenberg in honor of Eliezer Hanft's Bar Mitzvah and Shoshana Shapiro's Bat Mitzvah

David Ellenson and Jacqueline Koch Ellenson

Mary and Paul Feinberg in honor of Eliezer Hanft's Bar Mitzvah and Shoshana Shapiro's Bat Mitzvah

Tom and Lesile Freudenheim

Navah and Robert Frost in memory of their friend, Seth Palmer; in honor of Karen Palmer

Ina Cholst and Ira Goldberg in memory of Barrie Raik's father, Abraham Goldman, and Sigi Laufer

Debra and Martin Greenberg in honor of Albert Gal's 70th birthday

Barry Holtz and Bethamie Horowitz in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Green Kronfeld and Nathan Schleifer's father, Abraham Schleifer

Zipporah and Rabbi David Jacobs in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Green Kronfeld

Judy Katz in memory of Rose Margolin

Rabbi Melissa Crespy and Lawrence Kaufman

Leif Knutsen in memory of Seth Palmer

Andrew Braiterman and Ronne Mandelker in honor of Albert Gal's 70th birthday

Lois and Hugo Melvoin in honor of Susan and Ben Martin, Happy Hanukkah

Anny Dobrejcer and Michael Paley in memory of Nancy Paley Freedman

David and Sharry Pollock in memory of Abraham Goldman, Sonja Karpus and Ida Schenker

Adolfo Profumo in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Kronfeld and Barrie Raik's father, Abraham Goldman; in honor of Shoshana Shapiro's Bat Mitzvah

Michele J Siegel in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Kronfeld and Linda Ralston's father, Melvin Ralston; in memory of Barrie Raik's father, Abraham Goldman and Eleonore Zak's, mother, Sonja Muler Karpus

Lorin Silverman in memory of Barrie Raik's father, Abraham Goldman

Herman Sands and Phyllis Sperling sponsoring an Ansche Chesed Membership for Raphael Ellenson

Lori Strasberg in memory of Seth Palmer

Sharon Strassfeld in memory of Barrie Raik's father, Abraham Goldman

Victoria Assayag, Sabrina and Daniel Victor

Michael Wise in honor of Shoshana Shapiro's Bat Mitzvah

YAHRZEIT  

Judith Atkinson in memory of her father, John Atkinson

Beatrice Blanco in memory of her mother, Sophie Greenberg

Theodore Braude in memory of his father, Max Braude

David Brauner in memory of her father, Herman Brauner

Stephan F. Brumberg in memory of his wife, Pamela Brumberg

Larry Cohler-Esses in memory of his father, Jerome M. Cohler

Helane Brachfeld-Colvin and Stephen Colvin in memory of Stephen's mother, Irene Colvin

Zelda Damashek in memory of her father, Max Guttman

Friedl Dienstag in memory of her father, Julius Levite

Walter Dubler in memory of his mother, Bluma Leah Dubler

Sarah Fisher-Gillman in memory of her mother, Rose Fisher

Lisa Gittleman in memory of her father, Dr. Louis A Gittleman's 10th Yahrzeit

Mark and Carole Gothelf in memory of their friend, Steve Vincor

Sylvia Grant in memory of her father, Sam Levy

Walter Hautzig in memory of his grandfather, Mose Zwirn

Simon and Natasha Hirschhorn in memory of Natash's grandmother, Sarra Izrail

Ruth Kaufman in memory of her parents, Chiel and Charlotte Morgenstein

Jennifer Kinberg in memory of her grandfather, Edward Kinberg

Dr. Harold Koenigsberg in memor of his mother, Helen Koenigsberg

Toni Landau in memory of her mother, Ruth London

Fred Mansbach in memory of his mother, Mary Mansbach

Judith Edelstein and James Meier in memory of James mother, Carolyn K. Meier

Jerome Mendlowitz in memory of his family

Linda and Jack Messing in memory of Jack's mother, Rachel Messing

Linda Messing in memory of her father, Harold Waldman

Beverly Molot in memory of her parents, Lee and Samuel Molot

Ronald A. Morris in memory of his mother, Blanche K. Morris

Gladys Rosen in memory of her daughter, Amanda Elizabeth Rosen

Lizanne Rosenstein in memory of her father, Seymour Teitelbaum

Nahma Sandrow in memory of her father, Rabbi Edwards T. Sandrow; in memory of her grandmother, Ella Slavin

Naomi Sarna in memory of her husband, Edgar Sheller

Dr. Leah C Schaefer in memory of her father, Rabbi Boaz Cahan

Talia Schenkel in memory of her father, Nathan Schenkel

Ralph Seliger in memory of his father, Irving I. Seliger

Ruth Sharfman in memory of her mother, Lillian Sharfman

Herta Shriner in memory of the Fellner-Shriner Families

Marion Shulevitz in memory of her father, Daniel G. Cullen

Joel M Siegel in memory of his father, Aaron Siegel and sister, Sandra Siegel-Hessler

Michele J Siegel in memory of her grandmother, Pauline Siegel and her grandfather, Aaron Polisar

Lorin Silverman in memory of his great aunt, Anne Mintz

Jonathan Small in memory of his grandmother, Annie Small

Jackie Stein in memory of her father, Neal Kublan

Enid Stettner in memory of her grandfather, Louis Ballinger

Jonathan Beard and Rachel Theilheimer

Ian M Yudelman in memoy of his father, Joe Yudelman

Sitta Zorn in memory of her husband, Eric Zorn and sister, Clara Oppenheimer

RABBI'S FUND  

Vivian Awner in honor of Jeff Segall's birthday

Frank and Tatiana Baslow

Corinne Boren in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Kronfeld; in memory of Eleonore Zak's, mother, Sonja Muler Karpus

Mindy Fischer in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Kronfeld

Robin Nancy Forman

Adele Gold in memory of her husband, Herb Gold

Samantha and Jonathan Gordon in honor of Rabbi Kalmanofsky's participation in our daughter's simchat bat

William Jaffe in memory of Dr. Julian F Jaffe

George Kaplan in memory of Ida Kronfeld

David Kronfeld and Sarah Jacobs

Elaine and Ronald Morris in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Kronfeld

Bodo Mrozek with many thanks to Evan Eisenberg

Yocheved and Yochanan Muffs in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Kronfeld

Ellen Resnick and Eric Peterman in memory of David Kronfeld's mother, Ida Kronfeld

SHELTER FUND  

Tara and Timothy Burke in honor of Dr. Dina Rosenfeld

Benyamin Cirlin

Nina Goodman and Alexander Freudenheim

Stephen Gross

Vera and Rabbi Morton Leifman in honor of Yocheved Muffs, birthday of strength - 80!

Mr. and Mrs. Aron Stavsky

CHILDREN'S KIDDUSH  

Marla Alhadeff

SANCTUARY MINYAN KIDDUSH FUND  

Oscar Awner in memory of his brother, Max Awner

Vivian Awner to mark the occasion of her birthday

Benjamin Cirlin

Tom Freudenheim in memory of his parents Margot and Ernst Freudenheim

Alexandre Friedman in memory of his father, Stanley Friedman

Ronald M. Gold in memory of his father, Martin Gold

Martin and Tamara Green in honor of Martin's Birthday - November 13th

Stephen Gross in honor of my approaching eligibility for EARLY Social Security benefits!

Renee Barocas Hausman in gratitude for and interesting trip to Morocco and my safe return

David Kronfeld and Sara Jacobs in memory of David's mother, Ida Kronfeld

Gary and Ronelle Kallman

Miriam Harrris-Kaplan and George Kaplan in honor of ushers, Eric Gertner, Steve Gross and Tony Zak

Ruth Kaufman in memory of Sonja Muler Karpus, condolences to the Zak Family, and in memory of Abraham Goldman, condolences to the Raik Family

Sheila Kaufman Lewis in honor of my birthday, Thanksgiving Day, November 25th  "just a few years ago."

Naomi Marcus

Linda Messing in memory of her father, Harold Waldman

Tamara and Dan Nemo in honor of the baby naming of their daughter

Jerry and Barrie Raik

Ellen Tucker and Alan Rosenstein in honor of the first bithday of their granddaughter Sadie Louise Rosenstein, November 26th

Fran and Sam Schiff in honor of their granddaughter, Jenna Barbara Goodwin's Bat Mitzvah

Herta Shriner in honor of Shoshana Shapiro's Bat Mitzvah

Frances O Unger the warmest regard to Ansche Chesed for your programs and standards

Maron and Nahum Waxman

Nahum and Maron Waxman chai for each of their three grandchildren.

MUSIC FUND  

Ella Gregory

Stephen Gross

ADULT EDUCATION  

Burt Visotzky and Sandy Edelman

PRAYER BOOK FUND  

Michael Brochstein in memory of his parents, Barbara and Sol Brochstein

Eric Gertner in memory of his loving wife, Nina Yahr

Stephen Gross

Marilyn and Larry Levi in honor of Jerry & Barrie Raik for their dedication to the Sanctuary Minyan

Marion and William Shulevitz in loving memory of Daniel and Syd E. Cullen; and Norman and Rose Shulevitz