Our interfaith family New Year

[rug]

Posted on September 25, 2014 | By Debra J. M. Best, SPHR

Because Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, falls on Thursday this week, I’m writing my post today, Monday, and scheduling it to publish on Thursday morning. It’s a technology tool not unlike the elevators that stop on every floor automatically from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown to support orthodox Jewish Sabbath observance. While I am not Orthodox and not religious in the classic sense, out of respect for my birth religion and like many cultural Jews in the business community, I don’t work on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, including but not limited to attendance at business events during the work day. From an inclusion education standpoint, I always kindly decline such invitations, stating that the reason I’m not attending is that the business event is scheduled on Rosh Hashanah.

Our family of three – my husband Joel, our son Noah and me – are all Unitarian Universalist. Joel was briefly Lutheran, and I am Jewish by family inheritance, not by religious upbringing. My sole religious congregational experience started 10 years ago, when we joined our current UU congregation. Since the UU movement is non-Christian and non-dogma, you can become a UU and keep your birth religion. So I’m Jewish and UU; Noah is UU and Jewish (self-identified); and Joel is UU.

There are many aspects of Judaism that I love and treasure, particularly the High Holidays, a.k.a. the Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – it is a wonderful annual spiritual journey as impactful as a week of meditation. One of the reasons I am comfortable as a member of the UU movement is that Judaism is one of several religions that form the basis of the UU movement. So the Days of Awe are lifted up and included in UU services as well.

As a guest at a neighboring synagogue during High Holiday services a few years before Noah was born and during the time period that I struggled with multiple miscarriages, I heard the story of Hannah for the first time. It comforted me greatly, and gave me hope.

http://blog.timesunion.com/momsatwork/our-interfaith-family-new-year/2568/