Extended Family Archives

How to Navigate Different Sets of Rules with Parents and Grandparents

Kids love consistency; they rely on it and thrive with it. So what happens...

Extended Family, Family, Grandparent Advice, Grandparents, Parenting, Parenting Adult Children, Parenting Tips and Advice

Planning a Virtual Baby Naming: An Expanded Guest List and Too Much Zabar’s

By Sarah Rizzo

It’s funny looking back on my third pregnancy and thinking about the confidence my husband and I had...

Babies, Baby Naming, Extended Family, Family

How to React When Your People’s People are Targeted

By Lauren Schreiber Sasaki

“I know you’re not a Facebook person, but I think I need you to say something,” I said to my husband the day...

Anti Semitism, Extended Family, Family, Identity, Marriage

Rabbi Marc’s Top 5 Tips for Engaged Interfaith Couples

By Rabbi Marc Rubenstein

I have performed over 3,000 weddings throughout my 40-year career and I am passionate about working with Jewish...

Extended Family, In-laws, Officiant, Wedding Planning, Weddings

Communication: Talking to Your Partner and Your Families

By Rabbi Robyn Frisch

When planning a wedding, communication is key. You’ll be communicating with one or more of the following:...

Extended Family, Wedding Planning, Weddings

Marrying Off a Daughter as a Values Clarification Exercise

By Dr. Ruth Nemzoff

Marrying off a daughter is a values clarification exercise. While the wedding ceremony ostensibly serves to...

Extended Family, Family, Parenting Adult Children, Weddings

When a Major Jewish Holiday Clashes With a Major Family Wedding

By Debra Lynn Shelton

My cousin is getting married on Yom Kippur. And her dress rehearsal is on Kol Nidre. Yes, you read that right....

Extended Family, High Holy Days, Wedding Planning, Weddings, Yom Kippur

Naming Our Past, Present & Future

By Craig Cohen

Quinn receiving her Hebrew name Giving your child a Hebrew name is a long-standing tradition in Judaism. Sometimes...

Adoption, Babies, Baby Naming, Birth Ceremony, Extended Family, Parenting Stories, Young Kids

Family Acceptance & Testing the Breaking of the Glass

By Laura Drescher

Zach works with my dad to build a stand for our photo booth Over the July 4th weekend, Zach and I spent some...

Breaking the Glass, Extended Family, Wedding Planning, Weddings

How My Hindu Husband Became the Favorite Jewish Grandchild

By Jessica Melwani

I’d been dating the man who’d eventually become my husband for about a year when my grandmother sat me down...

Extended Family, Jewish Hindu Relationships, Marriage, Relationships

Why We Say Yes to the Easter Invite

By Sarah Rizzo

The phone rang and I heard my dad’s apprehensive voice. “Hi Sarah. I have a bit of a strange question for you....

Easter, Extended Family, Family, In-laws, Parenting, Parenting Passover, Passover

What (I Hope) My Interfaith Marriage Taught My Parents

By Jane Larkin

I’ve been married for 14 years and with my husband who is not Jewish for 16. I’ve always wanted to believe...

Extended Family, Grandparents, Parenting Stories

To Tree or Not To Tree

By Anna Keller

The dual holiday extravaganza this season is more work than I thought it would be. But, it’s important for...

Extended Family, Hanukkah Rituals, Holiday Toolbox, Parenting Christmas, Parenting Hanukkah, Parenting Stories

Gratitude, Love and Life

By Anna Keller

Helen Rose “No Limits” Being stuck in a car for three hours with my mother, Adrian (my significant...

Extended Family, Family, Parenting Stories

The Battle of the Bar Mitzvah Guest List

By Jane Larkin

Before I signed the contract for the place where we would have our son’s bar mitzvah, I needed a rough...

Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Camp, Extended Family, Parenting Stories, Teenagers

Take the Fifth: How an Intermarried Woman Honors Parents

By 18Doors

By Joy Fields We are commanded to honor our parents. The fifth commandment can present a few challenges, however,...

Extended Family, Family, Food, In-laws, Marriage

The Bar Mitzvah Brings Out the Big Questions

By Jane Larkin

Our son will become a bar mitzvah in about a year, and I imagine that this will be the first in a series of...

Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Extended Family, Parenting Stories, Teenagers

My Son’s Bris: Why I Was Not Prepared for This

By Anne Goodman

Jack’s Bris: Sam, Anne & baby Jack Before Jack was born, I thought I prepared as much as I could for...

Baby Naming, Birth Ceremony, Birth Stories, Bris, Circumcision, Extended Family, Growing Up Interfaith, Parenting Stories

Tips from a Newlywed: Planning Your Two-Faith Wedding

By Emily Baseman

Before my now-husband, Brandon, and I were engaged, I always assumed we would have a Jewish wedding. Brandon...

Extended Family, Newlywed, Officiant, Wedding Tips, Weddings

Grief in the Days of Awe

By Emily Mace

Two weeks ago, I wrote that I didn’t know yet what I would do for Yom Kippur. In the end, the Books of Life...

Extended Family, High Holy Days, Parenting Stories

When Cousins Think They’re Too Cool to Be Jewish

By Jane Larkin

1389 May 4, 2015 This article was reprinted with permission from The Forward. The Seesaw was a popular...

Extended Family, Identity

This Mother’s Day Let’s Honor Grandmothers of Jewish Kids Who Aren’t Themselves Jewish

By Rabbi Robyn Frisch

There are usually two types of Jewish blogs written in connection with Mother’s Day: 1. Those that focus on...

Extended Family, Family, Grandparents

Thirteen Years of Passover: An Interfaith Introduction

By Emily Mace

Setting the Passover seder table This year, I’ll be celebrating my 13th Passover with my husband. As a way of...

Extended Family, In-laws, Parenting Passover, Young Kids

Counting our Blessings at Thanksgiving

By 18Doors

Originally published November, 2007. Republished November, 2014 This is the year. For the first time in our...

Extended Family, Other Holidays Rituals

Extended Family

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