First
Steps

The Interfaith
Connection
is generating a
flurry of programs
and struggling
to attract
participants.

2/20
1998

10

JULIE WIENER
StaffWriter

t's Monday night, and the group
of 14 people in their 50s and
60s sit in a circle discussing
their grandchildren.
Only instead of the usual kvelling
and snapshot circulating that occur
when Jewish grandparents get
together, the participants are
talking about more serious con-
cerns: how to share their cultur-
al and religious backgrounds
with their grandchildren while
respecting the fact that they are
being raised in interfaith homes.
One woman asks for sugges-
tions on how she can teach her
out-of-town granddaughter
about Purim. The group urges
her to make a video, send a
package of goodies and write a
letter. Another grandmother
updates the group on her efforts
to gently persuade her non-
Jewish daughter-in-law, who is preg-
nant, to hold a brit milah or a Jewish
naming ceremony for the expected
boy or girl.
A support group that grew out of a
popular workshop last summer, the
monthly grandparenting sessions —

which have attracted a total of 30 peo-
ple — are among the more successful
of new outreach efforts for mixed-
marriage families under the aegis of a
six-month-old program called the
Interfaith Connection.
Created with a Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit grant of
$86,400, the Interfaith Connection

Top: Sue Stettner leads the group in a
recent Tu B'Shevat seder for interfaith
families.

Above: Families learn Jewish dancing at
an Interfaith Connection event.

— a joint initiative of Federation and
the Agency for Jewish Education —
is an expansion of the Stepping
Stones to a Jewish Me program
offered through the AJE for the past
seven years.
While the Interfaith Connection
continues to offer Stepping Stones, a
tuition-free series that helps interfaith
families explore Judaism, it is also
developing programs with a wider
range of venues: the grandparent
group, a discussion group for inter-
faith couples, and several short-term
social programs that revolve around
Jewish food and holidays.
The Interfaith Connection also
operates a resource line, and a quarter-
ly newsletter, "The Connection," is
scheduled to debut later this month.
"The past few months have been a
time of getting the word out and lis-
tening to people in order to plan new
outreach programs," said Sue Stettner,
coordinator of the Interfaith
Connection.
Marilyn Hertzberg of Jewish Family
Service facilitates the grandparenting
workshop and works with Stettner in
developing workshops and support
groups. She has been frustrated at
times by the difficulty in reaching out
to people.
"It's hard getting people to come
there for the first time, and we don't
have a budget for mass marketing,"
Hertzberg said. "However, once peo-
ple are there, we get wonderful
responses."
Despite the new initiative, enroll-
ment in Stepping Stones, which has
graduated 200 families in
the past seven years,
dropped to 12 families this
year. According to Stettner,
the low enrollment points
to a structural difficulty:
the paradox of requiring a
two-year, weekly commit-
ment from families that are
still "on the fence" as to
whether or not to be
Jewish.
"People find it over-
whelming to make a week-
ly commitment for a whole
year," said Stettner. "This is
a major decision for some
interfaith families. They're
busy and they don't know for sure th
this is what they will do with their
lives."
In response, the Interfaith
Connection shifted its focus to shorter
programs such as First Step, an eight-
session series for families with pre-

