The Link Sink

I've been meaning to give a shout-out to our friends at Jew-ish.com for a while, but better late than never. Since February, they've had a blog on interfaith marriage called Half-Torah (clever title). It was originally written by a gay man named Brian who was converting to Judaism; since May, it's been written by a Jewish woman named Becca married to a non-Jewish "Jew-ish" man. I haven't read every post, but I believe "Jew-ish" means that he doesn't have any Jewish roots, but he's so involved in Jewish life that he's essentially an honorary MOT. Check it out. Becca puts up new posts more frequently than I do, and she's not even paid for it.

Here's the latest update on the polls we've conducted since July 10, the last time I updated you on our polls. Our July 10 poll asked "Can a person be half-Jewish?" and respondents were almost evenly split: 53% said "Yes, of course" and 47% said "No, you're either Jewish or you're not." The July 31 question also saw a fairly even split. In response to the question "Is divorce harder for an interfaith couple than an all-Jewish couple?", 55% said for an interfaith couple, 45% said for an inmarried couple. However, in response to our Aug. 14 question--"Is making your partner happy a sufficient reason to convert to Judaism?"--nearly all of the respondents (90%) said No. And most of you (60%) thought that children should not be allowed to decide their religion for themselves, according to our Aug. 28 poll.

In Broward County, Fla., a large Jewish cemetery, the 52-acre Star of David Cemetery and Funeral Home, is adding 31 acres and 10,000 plots for intermarried Jews and their families.

Adam Goldberg, son of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, says he is tired of being typecast as a neurotic Jew.