Before we were married, my husband Matt had very little knowledge about Judaism. In fact, he made a comment once that Kosher must be the brand name of a salt. He’s a cutie. The only experiences he had were through various Shabbat dinners, Hanukah parties and Passover celebrations. He followed along with the Hebrew transliteration or sometimes sat back and observed what we were doing. Since we took Yours, Mine and Ours (YMO), a program especially for interfaith couples to discuss what they value most about their faith and family backgrounds, through URJ Reform Jewish Outreach Boston, we already decided that we were going to raise a Jewish family, but in order to do that, Matt wanted to know a little more about Judaism.

 After our YMO class we signed up for “A Taste of Judaism, Are You Curious?”  Contrary to the title, Matt said, “oh…sign me up! Matzah Ball soup??” Always the jokester.  In all seriousness, this was a great first time exposure for Matt. Our class was made up of interfaith couples and individuals who were simply ‘curious’ about Judaism or in the process of converting. It was only three classes, which was just enough to tickel our taste buds. We briefly covered topics around history, faith, customs and community. Matt loved the history piece and especially wanted to know more about the Jewish holidays and how they were celebrated. The class was definitely a good start for us because it was just a taste and was a manageable time commitment. I also enjoyed the class, because even though I was ‘born’ Jewish, it’s not like my knowledge of Judaism was passed on through my DNA, and after years of dozing off in Hebrew school, I didn’t absorb a thing. We both really enjoyed the class and after it was over we were so curious we signed up for the next URJ Reform Jewish Outreach course, called “Intro to Judaism.” That’s for another blog!

If you’re interested in taking “A TASTE OF JUDAISM: ARE YOU CURIOUS?”, you’re in luck! This free class is being held on November 14^th 7:30PM-9:30PM at Temple Israel in Boston.Pre-registration is requested. Contact Joyce Schwartz at URJ at 617- 928- 0012 or jschwartz@urj.org