Birth Announcement For Kveller

 A week and a half ago I mentioned here that Kveller, a new Jewish parenting website was due to arrive this fall.

Well, I am pleased to see that it seems to have emerged from the womb sometime last week. While I am not privy to the labor-and-delivery details (Ob-gyn or midwife? Natural or C-section?), from what I can see the newborn is attractive and in good health — and, with hundreds of articles and listings, already has a lot to say.

The site is a tad perky, corporate-feeling and Parenting magazine-y (pink font, stock images of adorable children) for my tastes, but that’s probably just my gritty, indie Oberlin College alumna anti-establishment bias talking. (Or maybe it’s just website envy coming from someone who has zero graphic-design skills and can do little more than input text and links onto her blog).

Nonetheless, the site’s writing is mostly sharp and honest (yes, I know several of the featured writers) and Kveller, which was parented by MyJewishLearning.com and UJA-Federation of New York, seems to be doing a great job so far of being Jew-y yet inclusive. Its tagline is “A Jewish Twist on Parenting,” and as MyJewishLearning.com Editor Daniel Septimus told me a few weeks ago, “We’re very consciously saying ‘parents of Jewish children’ and not ‘Jewish parents,’” so that it will be accessible to non-Jewish partners in interfaith relationships, as well as the Jewish ones. “We very much want to be addressing the needs of interfaith couples, and that was one reason it was hard to come up with a name for the site. We wanted to avoid putting ‘Jewish’ and ‘parent’ together,” he added.

One of the lead articles featured right now is reprinted from InterfaithFamily.com and has the teaser  “Mommy’s Jewish, Daddy’s Not: For intermarried couples, it can be tricky to decide how to welcome your newborn baby into the world. The good news is that there are lots of options.” (I see they’ve decided in the headline to avoid the trickier and more controversial situation that occurs when Daddy’s Jewish, Mommy’s Not,) 

Mazel tov and welcome to the world, little Kveller! I'm going to add you to my blogroll, once I figure out how -- and will be curious to get feedback from my readers on this newborn.

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