Dr Epstein said Imahot v’Avot’s Chanukah celebration, held last Sunday, was the group’s best attended event to date. “We had over 30 people there — it was great. If they were trying to put people off it doesn’t seem to have worked.”
He said the group was “great for children from same-sex families because they get to meet children from families who are like them. And for the parents, I guess, it is like a support group, but mostly we just talk about parenting like anyone else.”
He added: “It is not nice that some people complained about it but they are so insignificant.It is funny because our group has been going for years and we have members from across the religious spectrum.”
Dr Epstein praised JW3 for providing a venue for the group. “They have been fantastic and welcoming. They have said that not for one second would these calls stop them from hosting us.
“We are just really glad that our group is continuing to grow.”
Imahot v’Avot — “mummies and daddies” in Hebrew — was founded by Natalie Grazin because, she said, “we wanted our children to feel completely welcomed and wanted within the Jewish community.
She added: “It means a great deal that we meet in the heart of the Jewish community and that our activities are part of the programming of a mainstream Jewish organisation.”
Raymond Simonson, JW3’s chief executive, said the rabbis who signed the letter “represent just a very small, specific bit of the Jewish community”.
