Summer ’06 always assumed that she would raise her children Jewish.
Dating people of different faiths dating ancient lamps
I’m mostly just a matzo ball soup lover with an affinity for rugelach and my grandmother’s brisket.
Even so, my Jewish identity still remains a crucial part of who I am.
He adds that many Indian families would not support interfaith relationships, and that this attitude is characteristic of many other cultural traditions as well.“A lot of parents feel that you’re going to dilute your culture if you date someone of a different culture,” he says.
In contrast, Summer says she found that the strongest reactions came not from her family, but from her religious community.
Even though I occasionally attended Sunday school (my parents’ half-assed attempt at submerging me in Judaism), I never directly tied my Jewish identity to the religion itself.
Instead, my claiming of Jewishness came from a desire to preserve what my ancestors had fought so hard to maintain, through suffering years of persecution and by surviving the Holocaust.
My dad doesn’t believe in God and my mom does but more abstractly than holy books explain.
However both of them have a “to each his own” perspective and never influenced me in the matter and let me make my own decisions. I feel pressured to change my beliefs and abide to his in fear of losing him but I believe God made us each individually and I know He sees nothing wrong with me not being religious as long as I do good and live my life compassionately and tolerantly.
She says that when she ran for the position of Hillel President last year, some notable people in the community expressed concern over her involvement in an interfaith relationship.“It was not a huge issue,” she said, “but it was something that I had to justify.”Many Harvard Jewish students say that both dating and marrying within the faith are important to them.“I think that dating within the faith..a strong value that many Jews have.