Your N.Y. Minute (April 8) article on “Cokie and Steve’s Unity Haggadah” effectively communicates the rich tapestry of an interfaith marriage. Cokie, a Catholic, together with her Jewish husband, Steve Roberts, produces a Haggadah for the interfaith family that becomes the best-selling Haggadah on Amazon.com.
Such a marriage offers diversity of ideas for this Jewish holiday. The citations from Jesus, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II certainly communicate that non-Jews (I know that Jesus was Jewish) also understand the meaning of freedom.
I wonder if highlighting the beauty of an interfaith marriage contributes to Jewish continuity? I wonder if Cokie and Steve will also write a new Shulchan Aruch (Code of Jewish law) that will feature chapters on when it is best for a Jew to marry a non-Jew and how to raise the children of such a union? I wonder if the Nazi death machine would have spared the Jewish partner of an interfaith marriage in view of the respect shown to the non-Jewish spouse?
The N.Y. Minute on Cokie and Steve’s Haggadah successfully removes any stigma associated with intermarriage; in fact, the article/interview makes it rather attractive. Is that the objective of The Jewish Week?
Menahem Meier
Teaneck, N.J.
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