Jon M. Sweeney - Mixed-Up Love: Relationships, Family, and Religious Identity in the 21st Century

In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

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For more about this book and author, visit Bookish.com.

Out of a desire for privacy, brevity, clarity, or due to the faulty memory of the authors, some characters are composites and some names, personal details, and event sequences have been modified.

Copyright 2013 by Jon M. Sweeney and Michal Woll

Cover design by M80 Design / Wes Youssi

Cover copyright 2013 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

The authors are represented by Daniel Literary Group, Nashville, TN.

Jericho Books

Hachette Book Group

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First ebook edition: October 2013

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Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-4555-4590-2

Reflects on the new frontiers of interfaith marriage, and publishing veteran Sweeney can be depended on to know what makes a good book.

Publishers Weekly

Were way beyond Christmas and Hanukkah here. Sweeney and Woll offer a moving, personal reflection on their search for the divine in everyday life. Mixed-Up Love is an instructive, refreshing, and spiritually sophisticated guide for any couple seeking to navigate a complex religious path.

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Emanu-El Scholar at Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco and the author of Kabbalah: A Love Story

What unites us is so much greater than what separates us. If were sometimes mixed-up, this book can help sort it out.

Lama Surya Das, author of Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World, and founder of the Dzogchen Center in America

One of the most moving and candid love stories I have ever read mature, sure of itself, deft in its telling, rich in its sharing. Whether you are interested in the possibilities and intricacies of interfaith marriage or not, you are going to be grateful that Sweeney and Woll are and that they have been willing to tell the rest of us why.

Phyllis Tickle, compiler, The Divine Hours

Jon and Michal take us into the most intimate space of all, an interfaith marriage, and provide millions of similar couples with light and warmth on the complicated path of committing to faith and one another when the faiths are different. This is a generous and important book.

Eboo Patel, author of Acts of Faith and Sacred Ground

Jon Sweeney and Michal Woll have written an extremely important book for our era, and they have done so with depth, integrity, and humor. The book is beautifully written, and the back and forth dialogue between this husband and wife makes for exciting reading. Maybe their love is not so mixed-up after all.

Rabbi David Zaslow, author of Jesus: First Century Rabbi

All of us are figuring out how to be one big human family on one small planetwhen members of our family follow many different religions. Jon and Michal are figuring out how that works in one household, and they share both their experience and the wisdom theyve gained through it in this charming, enjoyable, and insightful book.

Brian D. McLaren, author/speaker/activist (brianmclaren.net)

Jon Sweeney and Michal Woll represent a new kind of American family, one that celebrates and learns from difference. Readers, in turn, will celebrate and learn from this book about their experiences together, whether its planning a wedding or dealing with the December dilemma.

Jana Riess, author of Flunking Sainthood and the Twible

Woll and Sweeney raise important questions in an engagingly frank way for all interfaith couples. They also add to the growing and multi-faceted conversation about rabbis with non-Jewish partners.

Rabbi Ellen Lippmann

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To Susie Learmonth and Jane Curtis, dear friends and matriarchs, who have always embraced us both individually and together

As we approached the project of writing a book prompted by our lives and stories, we were immediately faced with the how of it. We, Michal and Jon, are writing this book together, but also separately. The lessons we are learning, or attempting to learn, are often similar and sometimes the same, but not always or entirely. The nature of this book, and of our stories, which begin in such different places, urges each of us to fully express our thoughts and experiences before we consider our shared ideas or outlook. And so there are times when we are writing alone, either as Michal or Jon, and the text will appear in this typeface with our names at the beginning for clarity. When you see this typeface, we are speaking in one voice. When writing alone we are often sharing parts of our personal stories, but we also take these opportunities to bring our perspectives and opinions, as well as Michals professional experiences.