January 26, 2021 by admin

How Did Your Family Come About? •

There have been many taboos around family-building in the American Jewish community, with secrets surrounding adoption, sperm donation and more. A new collaboration that uses the Jewish Women’s Archive mobile app Story Aperture in cooperation with Hadassah, the Jewish Women’s Zionist Organization of America and Uprooted offers individuals the opportunity to share their stories, however they define family. Women, men and nonbinary participants can record themselves or be interviewed by friends or loved ones. Suggested prompts help guide the conversations.

jwa.org/your-family-building-story

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January 26, 2021 by admin

reConceiving Infertility •

A national information and advocacy campaign to demystify infertility and the inability to conceive also encompasses pregnancy loss, adoption, foster parenting, becoming a single parent by choice, LGBTQ+ family-building, and blended families. Training sessions help women advocate for insurance changes and empower them to speak openly about their pathways to parenthood—or their decision “to live child-free.” The initiative considers the feelings of the entire family, including parents who may never be grandparents and siblings who may never be aunts or uncles. It complements Your Family Building Story.

hadassah.org/advocate/reConceivingInfertility.html

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January 14, 2020 by admin

Adoption & Jewish Identity •

Despite the fact that American Jews adopt at about twice the rate of the general population, very little has been known about the real-life experiences of Jewish adoptees and their families. Many Jewish adoptees grapple with unique identity issues rooted in common assumptions about what a Jew looks like, “Jewish” abilities, and what makes someone authentically Jewish.

The Adoption and Jewish Identity Project began as a research project in 2010 with a first-ever in-depth survey of American Jewish adoptive parents, followed in 2014 by oral histories from a diverse group of adoptees raised in American Jewish families, in which they spoke about their multifaceted and evolving identities. The project has evolved into a nonprofit that supports Jewish adoptees and their families and advocates for inclusive communities. adoptionandjewishidentity.org

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The Lilith Blog

January 14, 2020 by Mikhal Weiner

Rabbi Susan Silverman on Adoption, Jewish Leadership and That Famous Bat Mitzvah

Last month I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rabbi Susan Silverman to speak about adoption, foster care, Jewish leadership—and of course, officiating Tiffany Haddish’s Bat Mitzvah. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

MKW: Let’s start at the beginning. What drew you to work as a Rabbi? 

SS: I was raised completely secular. The only Jewish thing my family did was on Rosh HaShanah, we would climb a local mountain and when we’d get to the top our dad would say “if there’s a God we’re closer to him up here than those schmucks are down in Temple.” Once in a while my mom would pull out these candlesticks that were her mother’s that her grandmother brought from Poland and we would light them—my mom knew the prayer. So I really had no Jewish education, but I was raised in a very progressive family. 

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