I was reading a website that attempted to answer peoples questions about judaism. Here is one of the responses that really bothered me. (Names were changed to protect HaLashon )
Q: I am Jewish and my spouse is not. We are raising our daughter as a Jew, but my spouse wants her to be exposed to Xtianity as well. Every year we go to my in-laws to celebrate x-mas with them, but this year my daughter is old enough to understand what it's all about and I'm starting to feel uncomfortable about going. Will it be too confusing to her? I'm also concerned about hurting my in-law's feelings.
A: ...
The real issue is what you mean by "exposing" your daughter to X-tianity. Children who are given "exposures" to both traditions so that they can choose later are not considered Jewish. They are also put into the difficult position of having to choose between what they know deep down will please daddy and disappoint mommy, or vice versa.
Written by -----------, Temple ---- -- , ---------, New Jersey
Wait a second here... Who says that a child loses his status as a jew because his parents decided to expose him/her to a different religion. Why does a child get excommunicated from the jewish people because of what his parents taught him ? The way I understand it once a jew ( by birth or proper conversion with Mikva and brit mila for men ) always a jew*. I'm sure that many of you who consider your self jews might not believe in every thing that the jewish faith tells you, and some of you would rather die than keep shabbat, but does that mean your not jewish ? And I'm almost sure that almost all of you has had some exposer to other traditions, and you may have chose to make some of those traditions your own, but that mean your not jewish ? Of course not! We know that being a jew is not because you follow the jewish traditions, but rather the other way, We follow the jewish traditions because we are jewish! We as jews feel some complement to follow the traditions , either Religious, or just only for the sake of pleasing our grandparents.
Jews have a unique and predetermined function in this world, all of the different "Nations" of the world were given a special talent and divine task to perform in this world. Our jewish faith teaches us as jews how we are to perform our divine task, we are given the responsibility of bringing a certain amount of "Holiness" into this physical world, and The Mitzvot ( Commandments ) are the way to do that. Its like an artist who was given the talent to bring beauty in to this world , if she doesn't use her talent does that mean that she doesn't have it? The talent may not become refined without practice, but the natural talent still remains. It may be a shame if she choses not make the world a more pleasant place with her talent, but that doesn't mean she loses it. The same by us jews, just by not expressing our jewishness through Judaism, doesn't mean that we lose our special spark of kedusha (holiness ) that makes us jews. If we don't use our spark, we might not refine it, and we might not share its benefit with the world but we for sure don't lose it.
Those of you who know me know that I don't endorse encouraging jews to participate in other religions, but only for the reason that in doing so the jew is not developing his/her spark to the fullest, and is not bringing as much kedusha into the world as he could. If you don't believe in Kedusha then I can fully understand why you don't want to develop it , and while I may think you are uninformed I don't think your less of a jew.
Oh and by the way, I would recommend not to use that website for your questions on Judaism, but I would recommend this site englishorot.blogspot.com.
*I believe there are some rare cases where people are put in a form of excommunication.
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*"Extremism is the perfection of the topic. One who waves the banner of moderation and hates extremism, is in the same camp as liars or imbeciles..."
The Chazon Ish