Educational Media Reviews Online

80% of Reform Jews who were married in the last five years intermarried, and a majority of American Jews today are partnered with someone of a different cultural or religious background. Leaps of Faiths looks at interfaith marriages, solely between Jews and Catholics, and explores the ways in which families navigate raising their children among two different faiths. It highlights the Chicago Interfaith Family School which works to provide a foundation for Jewish and Catholic faiths to children through adulthood and provides reflections from students who attended the school.

The film is split into three main parts and is upfront about its outcomes, which is to explore how families make the choice about which religion to raise their children in and how their children look back at their lives as they’ve grown. It is not a how-to guide on how to raise a child in an interfaith marriage. I appreciate that these expectations are set at the beginning and feel that doing so enhances your viewing of the film. Several different professionals in each faith are interviewed and provide different perspectives on the issues, as well as the children who grew up in interfaith families. Their interviews are the most impactful as they provide the most powerful insight into how this impacts families and that it is possible to raise children among two faiths.

My only criticism of this film is that it does not feature interfaith marriage among those outside of Jews and Catholics. I would have liked to see interfaith marriage explored among other religions and have the film discuss how that is navigated as I am sure there are probably similarities. However, the concepts of the film can be taken across different cultures and types of interfaith marriages. I recommend this film for middle school, high school, and college audiences as well as school, public, and academic library collections.

Awards:

Official Selection Chicago Jewish Film Festival