TheMadMasters

Israeli-American here married to French-Moroccan Muslim. We’re also 100% secular atheists. We have kids. When people ask what religion we’re raising them, we say, “human.”

We both believe religion is silly, but if someone wants to be religious, you can’t say, “ this is your religion.” Religion is something you should choose for yourself later in life. If one of my daughters wants to be a Roman Catholic nun, who am I to say no to what speaks to her?

We’re both vegetarians, but we don’t assume our children will be. They currently eat a meatless diet because they’re little and we make their food, but we always tell them it’ll be their decision to eat/not eat meat when they’re older.

Good luck!

HOLY CRAP -- this is the only time my username will ever be mentioned on Reddit. And by Werner Herzog, no less! I highly urge anyone to see Les Maitres Fous (The Mad Masters) and anything else by Jean Rouch.

Good question. I am an atheist Jew. For some reason, Judaism is both a culture and a religion. I am culturally Jewish. Same with my wife and Islam.

When our kids ask us about God, we tell them, there are people who believe this or that, but we personally don't believe in God as represented in the Bible or Koran. We also tell them that this is a personal decision they'll make when they're older.

You're welcome.

Being culturally Jewish, like anything Jewish, is complicated. =) You've heard the term, "wandering Jew?" Well, Jews tended to get around back in the day, so you have:

• Ashkenazi Jews (these are the majority of American Jews. They look European and lived in Poland, Russia, Germany, etc)
• Sephardic Jews (Sephardi means Spanish - they tend to be olive-skinned and their traditions differ a bit from Ashkenazi Jews. Many were expelled from Spain in the middle ages and fled to southern points in Europe, as well as North Africa) *Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab countries, such as Syria, Iraq -- most of them fled to Israel in the 1940s and 1950s)

So yeah -- culturally Jewish in America means something different than culturally Jewish in France --- but we all share a passion for complaining. =) That's kind of our unifying trait.

Even food is different. Ashkenazi Jewish food is like Eastern European food with corned beef, gefilte fish, etc. My sister-in-law is a Yemenite Jew and had ever seen any of those foods before she came to America. She was grossed out by it (and rightly so). And I had never had Yemenite food before meeting her family.

Sorry if this is all so confusing.

Thanks. So do I. My parents raised me with so many pressures and expectations; I am trying to let my kids be who they want to be, not feel like they need to conform to what I want them to be.