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November 22, 2002/Kislev 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 13
Network reflects new Jewish face
MICA ROSENBERG
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - Marla Brettschneider has an enthusiastically Jewish home in the Bronx - with a little twist.
Brettschneider's partner, Rabbi Dawn Rose, is a woman, and their two adopted young children - Toni and Paris - are black.
For the Jewish Multiracial Network, Brettschneider's family reflects the changing face of the Jewish community.
According to some estimates, more than 250,000 Jews in the U.S. are living in multiracial families.
Data about multiracial families from the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-2001 has not yet been released, but according to the 1990 study, 2.4 percent of American Jews identified as black.
That's a group the network wants to embrace, along with Jews from other parts of the world and Sephardic Jews, who often are overlooked.
And with an increasing number of Jewish families adopting children internationally, the Jewish Multiracial Network says ideas about Jewish families have to be re-evaluated.
"Implicit in the Jewish community is in-marriage; and by in-marriage I mean white with white, Jew with Jew and male with female," says Yosef Abramowitz, the CEO of Jewish Family & Life and the father of three children - including an adopted Ethiopian son named Adar.
As the keynote speaker at a Nov. 12 conference in New York, network member Abramowitz said that the Jewish emphasis on in-marriage carries with it "a hint - or maybe more - of racism, tribalism and exclusivity."
The network was started six years ago to combat this very problem, Abramowitz says. He believes accepting multiracial families is the only reasonable antidote to the reality of a shrinking Jewish community, which according to the new NJPS has decreased by 5 percent in the past 10 years.
The idea for the network originated with two women, mothers of adopted children from different races who met at a Jewish retreat. Jean Weinberg and Martha Gray wanted, for themselves and for their children, a space to interact with other families in similar situations.
Until recently, members were connected only informally through e-mail. In June of this year, Amy Posner, the director of the multiracial network, and Yolanda Thomas, the outreach coordinator, launched a formal membership drive.
The official number of members stands at 126 - all connected to one another by a listserve and occasional newsletter updates.
About 85 percent of members are parents with adopted children from different ethnic backgrounds. There are a few interracial couples, perhaps 10 percent.
The remaining 5 percent is made up of young adults from various backgrounds, says Thomas, herself a black convert to Judaism.
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