Celebrating Brit Shalom at Reform Judaism Conference

Article here. Excerpt:

'Reform Judaism, the branch of Judaism with which the most American Jews identify, is a progressive movement making tremendous efforts to be welcoming and inclusive. These efforts, which are widely perceived as strengthening the community, were to be the focus of the conference. So Rebecca and I created our display materials to tap into the theme of inclusion, with our own twist, of course: a call for open welcome of non-circumcising families in Jewish life.

With this as our premise, we were able to engage in many wonderful discussions and largely defuse those conversations that would otherwise have gotten heated and unproductive. Besides having our book available for sale, we had prepared a flyer laying out concrete steps that Reform clergy and institutions can take in order to send a clear message of inclusion to families opting out of circumcision. We gave out many dozens of these flyers (and gifted a number of books, too). Though a few visitors were less than friendly, the vast majority were respectful, and many were able to take part in thoughtful dialogue about the inclusion element and about our book. We were fortunate to have the help of the inimitable and tireless Martin Novoa, who added greatly to the conversation and was with us for most of the conference.'