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[quote=Anonymous]I grew up in a Conservative Jewish household. We only went to synagogue on the High Holidays, but we observed other "big" holidays with family meals. I had to go to Hebrew school 3x/week and really resented it. I lived in an area with a lot of other Jewish families growing up and this seemed to be the norm, although a lot of other families belonged to Reform congregations, but the Conservative one was close to my house which is why my parents joined that one.

As an adult, I can count the number of times I've been to synagogue on one hand. I have a 6 year old son, and am going back and forth with the thought of sending him to Hebrew school or not. DH and I talked and both are leaning toward him becoming a Bar Mitzvah, so we know that if we want that for him we need to start his religious education soon.  We live about 10 minutes away from a Reform congregation, and religious school would only be on Sundays until he gets to be in 4th grade, and then it would be one weeknight and Sunday mornings.

The thing is, I don't really culturally identify with being Jewish anymore. That part of my life feels like it's very far in the past, and it makes me feel uncomfortable to think about getting involved with a synagogue. In our house, we pretty much light the Hanukkah candles and then attend family dinners for other holidays. That's the extent of our religious life. My train of thought is that by giving DS a Jewish education, he can at least be informed and then choose later in his life whether or not he wants to continue with religion. If it didn't cost a lot of money to join a synagogue and pay for religious school, I think it wouldn't be as much of a question but the reality is that it does cost money.

Has anyone else had similar circumstances? Did you regret either sending your kids to religious school or not sending them to religious school? Are you glad you did or didn't? [/quote]

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