Learning Opportunity for Interfaith Couple

April 8, 2009

Author: Richard C. Dujardin

Source: The Providence Journal

http://www.projo.com/news/content/mothers_circle_04-08-09_BHDV7N1_v26.3862d44.html

“Why is this night different from all other nights?” the youngest asks as the family gathers around the table for the Passover Seder.

But at the home of Franklin and Mary Beth Schneider, a more fitting question might be, “Why is this Passover different from other Passovers?”

That’s because Mary Beth, a lifelong Catholic married to a Jew, is about to host her first Seder. Although she’s participated in other Seders, usually at her mother-in-law’s house in New York, never until now, she explains, did she have the confidence to have one herself.

The difference now is that Schneider, who left her job as a lawyer for Textron to care for her 22-month-old son, David, has drawn inspiration from her involvement in the Mothers Circle.

Rhode Island’s Bureau of Jewish Education established the circle to help non-Jewish wives in interfaith marriages — a group that has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few decades — to better understand their husbands’ religion, share feelings and learn to take part in the religious traditions in a more active way.