FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is InterfaithFamily.com?
InterfaithFamily.com, Inc. is the online resource for interfaith families exploring Jewish life and the grass-roots advocate for a welcoming Jewish community. This resource is for everyone touched by interfaith relationships where one partner is Jewish, on every topic of interest to them, and for everyone who works with and cares about them.

InterfaithFamily.com is an independent non-profit publisher and advocacy association. It is the only national organization that focuses exclusively on reaching out to interfaith families.

InterfaithFamily.com has four main initiatives:

  • Web Magazine. InterfaithFamily.com produces the only Jewish publication in the world, either online or in print, that reaches out directly to interfaith families.
  • Connections In Your Area. The Connections In Your Area section of our website lists current, updated information about more than 340 programs and organizations in local Jewish communities throughout North America that welcome the participation of interfaith families.
  • Professionals Advisory Circle. Our Professionals Advisory Circle connects more than 50 professionals in the Jewish outreach community.
  • The InterfaithFamily.com Network. The Network advocates for attitudes, policies and practices that Jewish organizations and leaders can use to engage and include interfaith families within the Jewish community.

What is the organization's mission?
InterfaithFamily.com empowers interfaith families to make Jewish choices for themselves and their children, and encourages the Jewish community to welcome interfaith families. We believe that maximizing the number of interfaith families who find fulfillment in Jewish life and raise their children as Jews is essential to the future strength and vitality of the Jewish community. Through our website, our advocacy membership association the InterfaithfaithFamily.com Network , and other programs, we provide useful educational information, connect interfaith families to local Jewish communities, build community, and advocate for inclusive attitudes, policies and practices.

Who sponsors it?
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, InterfaithFamily.com depends on tax-deductible charitable contributions and grants for its funding to make our work possible. We enjoy the support of an involved Board of Directors, an Advisory Board, and other individuals including members of the InterfaithFamily.com Network, as well as institutional funders including the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, the Koret Foundation, the Children of Harvey and Lyn Meyerhoff Family Philanthropic Fund, the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

If InterfaithFamily.com is a non-profit, why doesn't it have a .org URL?
Our mission is to reach as many people in interfaith relationships as we can. People don't visit .org websites as much as .com websites, that's the reason our URL is a .com. Many other non-profits have .com URL's; there is no requirement that non-profits have .org URL's.

Why is it important for the Jewish community to welcome interfaith families?
The debate in the Jewish community about what to do about the continuing high rate of intermarriage continues. The important issue remains whether we will respond positively and seek to increase the numbers of interfaith families--33 percent in 2000, up from 28 percent in 1990--who raise their children as Jews. The key is to maximize efforts to welcome interfaith families. InterfaithFamily.com is a major voice in the debate, speaking out on behalf of interfaith families and stressing their potentially positive impact on the Jewish community.

Interfaith families connect with Jewish life at varied times and in random ways, a variety that highlights the importance of always standing ready to capitalize on opportunities to welcome. They connect before weddings, when children are born or start school or reach Bar/Bat Mitzvah age, when they go to college, and later. They read articles and books; they see advertisements for outreach programs in Jewish newspapers or parenting magazines or in emails forwarded by friends or in Temple bulletins; they find a welcome as a young adult at their college Hillel, or as a young mother in her child's Jewish pre-school; they are put in touch with someone who welcomes them.

Traditionally, kol yisrael areivim zeh l'zeh, every Jew is responsible for every other Jew. To strengthen the Jewish community by increasing the participation of interfaith families, every Jew also should be responsible to be aware of and sensitive to, and to take advantage of, every opportunity to invite interfaith families into Jewish life. Or, as one InterfaithFamily.com writer put it, "to put a bit more faith into interfaith marriages."

What role is InterfaithFamily.com playing in advocating that the Jewish community welcome interfaith families?
In the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's lead story that appeared in numerous Jewish papers, InterfaithFamily.com was the first "pro-outreach" voice commenting on the National Jewish Population Survey results in September 2003. Unfortunately, important Jewish leaders continue to express extremely negative attitudes towards intermarriage and outreach to the intermarried, so our advocacy as a strong pro-outreach voice is now as important as ever. Our position remains unique among the national organizations working to make the Jewish communal response to intermarriage a positive one. InterfaithFamily.com is the only national organization that focuses on reaching, working with and encouraging interfaith families themselves, and advocating on a grass-roots level as their "voice"--a voice that must continue to be heard.

We recommend that families choose one religious identity for their children, while honoring the traditions of the non-Jewish parent (for example, participating in Christmas and Easter celebrations). We recommend against trying to blend religions or raising children as "both." Conversion is a wonderful personal choice but our goal is increase the number of children raised as Jews in interfaith families, not to increase the number of converts to Judaism. We support rabbis who officiate at intermarriages and encourage more to do so. We are in favor of increasing the opportunities for non-Jewish parents raising Jewish children to participate in synagogue ritual and leadership and all aspects of Jewish life. And we are in favor of a major investment of resources to greatly expand programs of outreach to interfaith families.

How does InterfaithFamily.com fit in with mainstream Jewish organizations?
InterfaithFamily.com works closely with other Jewish organizations, including the Reform Movement, many Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist synagogues, the United Jewish Communities, the Jewish Community Centers Association, the Association of Jewish Family & Children's Agencies, and many federations and organizations including Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston, the Jewish Outreach Institute, the Stepping Stones National Institute, PlanitJewish.com, Jewish Family & Life and more.

In modern Jewish practice, Jewish girls come of age at 12 or 13. When a girl comes of age, she is officially a Bat Mitzvah (?daughter of the commandments?). The term is commonly used as a short-hand for the Bat Mitzvah?s coming-of-age ceremony and/or celebration. The male equivalent is "Bar Mitzvah." Place of Jewish worship, referring to both the room where it occurs and the building where it occurs. Colloquially referred to as "temple." Place of Jewish worship. Same as synagogue.