McGinity is Not A Jewish Name

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by Dr. Keren McGinity If I had eighteen cents for every time someone told me, “McGinity? That’s not a Jewish name!” I’d be a wealthy woman. The statement is based on two assumptions: Jews have distinctive Jewish names and someone with an ethnically “other” name couldn’t possibly be Jewish. OK, so how does a nice […]

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Sue Coat?

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by Walton Clark, Office Assistant I have an app on my phone called Duolingo. It’s a free language learning app that teaches you a language through taking quizzes. As you take the quizzes new material is introduced with simple questions. As I considered what I wanted to write about for this blog post, I thought about how […]

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Escaping the Bubble

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by Walton Clark, Office Assistant Often times, I see and hear about people getting caught in the proverbial bubble, having this feeling of being stuck where they are. Life is just the same series of actions, over and over again; the feeling that what happens today is not any different from the next day. The feeling […]

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The Water is Wide

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by Sheila Goldberg, Member of Mayyim Hayyim’s Education Advisory Committee   At a meeting last year of the Education Advisory Committee for Mayyim Hayyim, we talked about ways to bring people in to learn about both Mayyim Hayyim and the new role that the mikveh plays within contemporary, liberal Judaism. I immediately thought of our […]

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How Mayyim Hayyim is Like China

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by Sherri Goldman, Administrative and Finance Director This past April my son went to China to play jazz with his high school’s jazz band. The school year began with the exciting news of a musical cultural exchange in China. Then the fundraising kicked in. The students studied about Chinese culture and learned how to speak […]

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Our Newest Jews…

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By Mayyim Hayyim Staff To date, nearly 2000 people have chosen Judaism at Mayyim Hayyim!  April, May and June are particularly busy months for “brand new Jews”.  Ever wonder what goes through people’s minds as they finalize their conversion or affirmation process at Mayyim Hayyim?  Here are some quotes from our guest book… Thank you […]

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Coming Indoors

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by Benjamin Maron, Mikveh Guide In many ways, my work has been about the people at the fringes of our communities, those outside looking in. I’ve worked in social services, ran youth outreach groups, and started interfaith dialogue groups between Muslim and Jewish students on a too volatile campus. I spend my days at InterfaithFamily, […]

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Yes, Actually I Am Jewish

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by Laura Seide, Development intern A few months ago, I wrote about wanting to immerse in the mikveh to recognize my transition into secular adulthood. I expected to find renewal in the waters; what I did not expect to find was the self-acceptance I did not even know I needed. I still remember the first […]

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Our December Dilemma Ritual

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by Julia Becker Collins, Director of Community Engagement When my husband and I were in our Introduction to Judaism class at Temple Beth Shalom, we had a class discussion about what is often called the “December Dilemma.”  This is the coined phrase that surrounds the ‘conflict’ that appears to many interfaith families and couples at […]

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There's No 'Right' Way: Our Interfaith Journey

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This post originally appeared on JewishBoston.com, and was written by Sam Kaplan and Rachel Wilson on behalf of Reform Jewish Outreach Boston When I was introduced to Rachel by a mutual friend, I was told that she was my perfect match: cute, fun, and Jewish!  Well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad!  Given the topic […]

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Beyond the Huppah

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Mayyim Hayyim is pleased to offer its successful program, “Beyond the Huppah: Creating the Jewish Marriage You Want” beginning this Sunday, March 4 (a few spots still remain!). Enjoy this reprint of a blog post from the program’s facilitator, Judy Elkin, describing one of the remarkably insightful exercises she employs in the program to help couples relate […]

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