Are you wondering, like I was, what the “Jewish test” is? It seems my 6-year-old daughter, Isabel, quizzed her dad over the weekend on the 10 plagues, the Four Questions and a few Hebrew words, and he got an A-. Isabel has always known that he is not Jewish but struggles to understand how her dad, whom she looks up to and admires very much and looks strikingly similar to, could be different than she.
When she was 3 years old and asked me if “we” were Jewish, I told her that she and I are Jewish but that her dad is not. I explained that he grew up going to church with his parents but that he came to love me and decided we would have a Jewish home and children. After I talked for a good 10 minutes about her dad, Isabel said, “But he comes to temple with us and celebrates the holidays with us, so it’s like he’s Jewish.” Then she abruptly changed the topic and didn’t bring it up again until this past weekend with the whole “Jewish test.” I have no doubt that she will keep “testing” her dad, but I also know he’s going to keep learning what he can to make sure he passes her test.
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