Paths to Peoplehood salutes the participants of the KolDor 2007 Global Conference that took place October 25-28 on the shores of the Kinneret. The conference paved new paths for Jewish Peoplehood, both on the ideological and practical levels.

Our last edition highlighted the debate on intermarriage and Orthodoxy instigated by Noah Feldman; the current issue continues to discuss this theme moving on to the debate being held by Jews who belong to liberal denominations regarding the efficacy of "outreach" to intermarried couples. Moving from policy discussions to the actual dynamics of family life in mixed marriages, Sylvia Barack Fishman's research attempted to ascertain what actually goes on in families in which one of the spouses has converted to Judaism, followed up by an interview with her on Rosener's site. In an opinion piece from 2000 Judith Shulevitz struggles against claims (voiced again lately by Noah Feldman) that opposition to intermarriage is un-American and xenophobic.

We then depart from the academic ivory tower and lend an ear to Reform rabbis who are 'out there' making decisions whether to officiate at marriages in which one of the partners is not Jewish. Rabbi Kominsky agrees to officiate in cases in which he is convinced "that this is a relationship that will support a Jewish future." Rabbi Lieberman refuses, claiming that "Jewish weddings are Jewishly specific" and it is not fitting for a non-Jew to participate. We close the English section with a 1995 NYT piece that describes a debate that raged in Connecticut following the decision by a local Jewish weekly not to run interfaith wedding announcements. The Hebrew articles provide an overview of the intermarriage situation among US Jewry; they are taken from Shmuel Rosner's series on US Jewry in Ha'aretz.