How to Nurture Your Grandchildren’s Jewish Identity
When their Parents Don’t Share a Single Faith
The Grandparents Circle® Returns to the Greater Palm Beaches
It’s no secret that as we increasingly become a global community, intermarriage rates among Jews and other faith communities continue to rise. While more accepted than in past generations, it is still hard for grandparents who want to see family traditions continue. For Jewish grandparents living in our community, the Commission for Jewish Education of the Palm Beaches (CJE) provides ideas and support that can lead to positive Jewish conversations and activities with their adult children, their spouses, and their grandchildren.
Jewish grandparents in the greater Palm Beaches can now gain the skills and techniques to nurture and, in some cases, establish their interfaith grandchild’s Jewish identity through The Grandparents Circle.
Created by the Jewish Outreach Institute (JOI) and implemented locally by the CJE, this free program includes a five-session course, a connection to family-friendly events and a national email discussion forum providing a supportive online community of peers.
“Regardless of how children in interfaith homes are being raised, each child is entitled to their legacy. As Jewish grandparents, we have the privilege of passing down our heritage,” shares N. Deborah Stapler of Palm Beach Gardens, a Commission for Jewish Education (CJE) Board member and participant in CJE’s Grandparents Circle inaugural year.
Stapler invites all area Jewish grandparents whose children are in interfaith marriages to share her CJE’s Grandparents Circle experience by joining the five session program that will be held on five consecutive Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. beginning on February 12, 2013 at Wycliffe Country Club, 4650 Wycliffe Country Club Blvd., Wellington.
“It is enriching and inspiring for each participant in different ways. The group has every combination of stories about family situations, including interfaith, interracial and intercultural.” Stapler adds, “I came to Grandparents Circle with an open mind. All of us share some level of disappointment that our children are not married to a Jewish spouse. That connects us. It is especially important to give tools to those who have felt that their married children cannot be reached.
“My daughter is married to a man with an Italian Catholic heritage. The children are being raised as Jews. They live in another community. The knowledge gained in Grandparents Circle enables both local and long distance grandparents to share positive Jewish moments with their grandchildren. Children love ‘snail mail.’ For my grandson’s promotion to Middle School, I planted a tree in Israel and he received a certificate with an illustration targeted to children.
Our facilitator, Rabbi Janie Grackin, emphasizes our relationship with our own children and the impact a grandparent can have on grandchildren.”
Rabbi Janie Grackin, Grandparents Circle instructor for CJE, is an international community educator, who uses the art of storytelling to inspire and educate. She creates programs for intergenerational populations in synagogues and schools in the United States, Europe and Israel. Awarded the Solomon Schechter Gold Award for Family Education, she is a contributing author to “Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning,” and recently led the Passover Seder, “Walking the Exodus,” at the American Embassy in Berlin, Germany.
Speaking passionately about Grandparents Circle and its impact on participants, Rabbi Grackin says, “The Grandparents Circle offers a fun, friendly and safe place to examine and expand your knowledge in creating the best relationships with your interfaith children and grandchildren. With warmth, humor and honesty, we explore ways for you to discover and share your Jewish heritage, and we give you new ideas and tools to make it easy!”
Launched with an initial grant from The Fine Foundation and additional support from N. Deborah and Michael Stapler, the CJE’s Grandparents Circle program continues this year for the Greater Palm Beaches thanks to a generous gift from Dundi and Lyon Sachs of Palm Beach.
For more information or to register for CJE’s Grandparents Circle, contact Erika Simon, CJE Jewish Family Life associate at [email protected] or at 561.209.2607 or visit the CJE website at www.cjepb.org.