The first time my husband and I (both middle aged) gazed at the photograph we’d been sent of the black haired, ten-day-old baby girl who we were in the process of adopting from Guatemala, we instantly fell head over heels in love with her. And we knew we wanted to raise her to be Jewish, something neither of us had predicted.

I’d grown up with atheist, left-wing parents, lifelong, fiery champions of the oppressed, via civil rights and union activism. They considered themselves Jewish – and were sensitive to anti-Semitism — but didn’t celebrate or observe any Jewish customs or traditions. When asked directly about their Jewish identities, they declared themselves, “Atheists first, Jews second.” […]