A Mother’s Jewish Guilt
Helen Rose in her Hand Made Birthday Dress from her Abuelita in Mexico
I burned myself last week. Right after...
Author: Anna Keller
Anna is a writer and teacher who lives in Brooklyn with her family.
How to Pray with Two Faiths
Our family has had a hard few weeks. Every day we open the news to a different headline about hatred and anger....
Two Faiths and Powerful Women
My daughter, Helen Rose Castaneda, wakes up one day at 10-and-a-half months old, pulls herself up in her crib...
Our Attempt at Planning a Family Vacation and Baby’s First Fever
We had been planning our vacation to upstate New York for six months. The hotels book up by the end of August,...
The Challenges of Keeping Kosher at an Interfaith Birthday
Growing up, my mother’s house was kosher. We had dishes for dairy and dishes for meat and we never mixed milk...
My Favorite Interfaith Children’s Book
When I was a child there were two books I wanted desperately to hear before bedtime. The first was Goodnight...
Mourning, Friendship and the Future
Baby Helen meets Liz
I was in the seventh grade when my father died. I had already been asked to leave an Orthodox...
Babies, Death & Mourning, Death & Mourning Stories, Parenting Stories, Young Kids
Strolling with Moses on Shavuot
There was a painting that hung in the living room of our house when I was a child. My father’s good friend Mike...
Babies, Parenting Other Holidays, Parenting Stories, Shavuot
The Word They’ll Learn the Best
First words. What was my own first word? Probably “Mama,” though now my mother doesn’t remember. She does remember...
But You’re Not Really Jewish, Right?
“But you’re not really Jewish right?” This has been a question I have been asked since I was big enough to...
Babies, God, Identity, Parenting, Parenting Stories, Relationships, Religion
Community Comes Together for Baby’s 1st (Interfaith) Passover
A funny thing happened when I had a baby. People in my neighborhood whom I had never spoken to started speaking...
My Turn to Make the Passover Meal (with Grandma’s Potatoes)
Passover is approaching. The stores in my neighborhood have begun the process of taking the chametz (bread)...
My Dad, Elijah and the Afikomen
My father and brother
Spring means color. Splashing greens and yellows. Purple tulips cascading over front porches...
Purim and My Mexican American Jewish Newborn
Purim in my neighborhood is an extravaganza. Limousines crowd the streets and rabbles of teenagers run in and...
Jewish Mourning: A Lesson for My Newborn
When I was 8 years old I had a good friend who lived around the corner from me. His name was Nachshon. We took...
Death & Mourning, Jewish Mourning Rituals, Mourning, Parenting, Parenting Stories, Shiva
We Met in the Middle
Adrian and I met working at a restaurant. Some might call it an “interfaith restaurant.” Tucked away in Cobble...
Mysticism and My Newborn
Adrian checks out the snow with baby Helen Rose
I believe in the mystical. Tarot Cards, Ouji boards,...
The Ghosts of My Grandmothers or How We Named Our Newborn
Some people believe that when a child is born the angel of death and the angel of mercy stand in the room side...
Our Jewish Catholic Mexican American Newborn
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” -Lau Tzu
I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish...
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