Jewish Agency Helps With Interfaith Child-Rearing

Jewish Family Service of Orange County is holding weekly discussion sessions to help interfaith families handle problems with child-rearing, holidays and other issues.

“The predominant problem is there are often conflicting points of views,” said Mel Roth of the organization. “Sometimes it’s confusion as to how to raise the children. Sometimes, they feel pressure from the grandparents.”

The best course “is to choose one religion . . . and stick with that,” Roth said. Families should resist the temptation to mix the symbols and practices of two faiths, he said.

“It’s hard for the parent of the other religion not to interject something, and that contradicts everything,” Roth said. Children also can find themselves with conflicting loyalties.

The Jewish Family Service aims to help interfaith couples--where one partner is Jewish--to discover such problems and solve them, he said.

Couples are invited to participate in a discussion group that meets for three weekly sessions on Wednesday evenings in Costa Mesa. The service is at 250 E. Baker St., Suite G. Information: (714) 445-4950.