Quotes/Testimonials

"I had a conversation with a teacher of young children after she saw "Both Sides of the Family." (She works in a congregational school). The teacher told me that while she had always been sensitive to her students with intermarried parents, the play opened her up to a greater depth of understanding of the issues and ways she could be more supportive to the children and to the parents. This to me is the power of the production for Jewish educators-it offers us a rare window into the angst, challenges and dreams of those who have intermarried, both the Jew and non-Jew. The conversation that the play provokes is an important one, whether for an individual teacher or an entire staff who has viewed it together, especially on behalf of those children enrolled in our schools who are being raised Jews in home with a non-Jewish parent." Nachama Moskowitz, Jewish Education Center of Cleveland.


“I was stunned to hear that so many people had signed up for the performance (at Congregation Beth Israel), and BLOWN away by the script and performance.”

“Simply put, everyone has a story. The play is about these stories, the complexities and challenges and realities. You don’t need to be married to someone of a different faith to feel those things. The subject matter may be particular, but the real punch of the play is universal.”

“I do believe that the experience made our ‘regulars’ feel so much more embraced and understood, and helped those who come less often feel like Congregation Beth Israel really could feel more like home to them, because they are not as different as they might have assumed they were.”

“The performance hit all the right notes, experiences, feelings, circumstances. Every single person in the room—raised Jewish or not, converted or not, involved in an interfaith relationship or not, with kids or not—everyone related to at least a portion of the play, and was educated by other elements.” Lisa Colton Lay Leader at Congregation Beth Israel-Charlottesville, Va., and consultant to Jewish organizations nationwide..

Additional Audience Comments

"The play was provocative, entertaining, absorbing and broadening, and, beautifully performed. Furthermore, it was perfectly economical no wasted words and everything contributed to the whole. On the way home, I remarked to Don that this was New York quality. I'm so pleased you let us know about this it was one of the best experiences of our holiday season. "

"Even though we are not Jewish, we could certainly relate to the themes of tradition and family and the choices/sacrifices you make for family. It really does mean everything. We both come from families where tradition is very important. I thought it was really well written. The play verbalized beliefs and feeling which made me feel enriched leaving the performance."

"I was simultaneously embarrassed and proud of our idiosyncratic Jewish peculiarities, at all of our silly rules and their necessary exceptions and the requisite flexibility of our identities within a structure that has defied numerous metamorphoses. I felt defensive about our apparent stringent exclusivity and yet apologetic about the anguish we cause others who want to attach themselves to us and we make it so hard. At moments like that I feel like I become the rocky cliff against which multiple waves are crashing and then in on themselves, over and over, until they return to sea to be replaced by yet bigger, stronger ones. I feel contempt for ambivalent born-Jews who have not one wit of guilt or pride about their Jewishness. And I can empathize completely with the kind of indignation your character portrayed when she says with such real exasperation, "How could I obey a rule I never knew existed?" And then I wonder who the hell I am to be so contemptuous or so understanding?"