A tale of two brothers

It's a strange thing that death brings people together. And although it does make sense, reminding people about what is truly important in life, it's also sad to think it's possibly one of the only ways to mend broken bonds.

Imagine two brothers. Two brothers who were so close you couldn't find one without the other. Two brothers who, when younger, played with each other, shared secrets, and hugged. Then something changed. One became an orthodox rabbi and the other didn't.

In the beginning, neither of them thought it would break their bond, but when the unorthodox brother married a non-Jew, their once tightly knit relationship unraveled.

"“It's like drugs," the rabbi said. "If David had a drug problem, I wouldn't continue my relationship with him because what he was doing was wrong. I wouldn’t want to encourage him."

So for years the brothers went without speaking to one another, and in turn affected the entire family. Is this right?

First of all I should mention this is a true story, it's not a hypothetical case I put on the page to bring up a dialogue about how religious beliefs can negatively affects families.

I'm also not saying that religion always has a negative impact when it comes to family, because it often acts as an ingredient to bring families together. However, in the above scenario, it saddens me to think that because of a belief one could turn against his or her own sibling. Does religion truly turn everyone into an "other"?

My grandmother was Judaism

The last couple of weeks have been difficult. Difficult because my grandmother, the woman who not only loved me unconditionally since the day I was born but also instilled in me, and everyone she knew, her love for Judaism, passed away.

She was the matriarch of our family, and we all maintained specific religious traditions for her. The synagogue that my grandmother and grandfather belonged to in Columbus, Ohio became the synagogue of my family. We stayed at the synagogue not because we felt like it reflected who we were as Jews but because it was where my mother went when she was younger, and a community that my grandparents were so involved in. But now, what would happen? Without my grandmother, what would happen to the traditions of our religion?

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