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Andee and Dan Mosher with grandchildren Kate, Grace, Lance and Anna Mosher

Gaining Support

Program helps grandparents of interfaith
grandchildren share their Jewish faith.

Jennifer Lovy | Contributing Writer

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36 September 8 • 2016

S

omeone once asked Andee
Mosher if it bothered her that
all four of her grandchildren
were not being raised Jewish.
Her response: “I’d be sadder if my
sons’ relationships with their wives
were not strong, and they weren’t
respectful of each other or of us.”
Mosher of Farmington Hills con-
tinued, “I’ve seen other grandparents
save a row of seats at services for their
children and grandchildren. We’ll
never have that, and we won’t have any
bar or bat mitzvahs in the family —
which would have been nice, but we
have other things. We’re included and
involved in the lives of our children
and grandchildren, and we have won-
derful, respectful daughters-in-law.”
With intermarriage rates as high 71
percent among non-Orthodox Jews,
according to a 2013 survey by the Pew
Research Center, there is a significant
need for resources for the parents of
those who married outside their faith,
particularly as they become grandpar-
ents.
“Being a grandparent to a child that
is being raised with another religion,
no religion or two religions can feel
isolating, and it can be hard for a
grandparent to figure out where their
Judaism fits in their grandchild’s life,”
said Carol Cooper, a Temple Israel
volunteer and a Union for Reform
Judaism Certified Reform Outreach
Fellow.
Several years ago, Cooper co-

facilitated a few sessions at Temple
Israel for grandparents of interfaith
grandchildren. Verne Royal and her
husband, Ed, went to one.
The advice the Royals received —
including how to share their religion
in a way that doesn’t create tension
— was life-changing, and it was a
message that needed to be shared in a
forum broader than a few workshops.

GRANDPARENTS CIRCLE
Now Royal and Cooper, along with
Mary Lou Berndt, facilitate a pro-
gram at Temple Israel called the
Grandparents Circle, which is an edu-
cation and support program for Jewish
grandparents whose adult children
have intermarried. This month, which
includes National Grandparents Day
on Sunday, Sept. 11, will be their third
time running the program.
Created by Big Tent Judaism, a
national outreach organization, par-
ticipants in the Grandparents Circle
range from those who are grieving
over their child’s interfaith marriage to
those who have embraced it, according
to Royal. Some participants have regu-
lar contact with their grandchildren
while others have limited contact to
none, she added.
“We spend a lot of time helping
them cope with their feelings of an
interfaith marriage,” Cooper said. “One
of the best parts is they feel they are
not alone. Through sharing stories,
participants learn as much from each
other as they do from us.”
Unlike the sessions the Royals

