Makenzie Moyes

Dr. Halie Wenhold

Intercultural Diversity

29, November 2021

Intercultural Interview Paper

For my intercultural interview I chose to interview my dad, who is the son of a Jewish

mother and Atheist father. We have talked about this topic before, but never went into much

depth as we did for this interview. Learning about him and more of his childhood was

exhilarating and brought us closer in a more personal, religious way.

My dad's name is Stuart Moyes, he is a 51 year old Christian, and he grew up in

Ossining, New York which is about an hour north of New York City. He lived there till he was

about 18, and after that he went to college in New Hampshire and lived in Boston for the rest of

the time. During his childhood years in New York, he had a Jewish mother, Irene Moyes, who

left England when she was 15 to start a new life in America, and his Atheist father, Terry Moyes,

followed her to America because he did not want to lose her. Talk about a love story. They have

now been married for 57 years and live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Irene grew up in a Jewish

household, so she held these certain traditions very tightly. Terry, who is an Atheist, did not care

much about religion and had no stance or views on what to celebrate, so he went along with

whatever his wife would want to do. My dad explained what the holidays looked like as “we

would celebrate Hanukkah and light the Menorah, but we wouldn’t open any of the gifts untill

Christmas morning around the Christmas tree we had.” This way they can appreciate

Hannahkah and celebrate Judaism, but also have a more traditional, non-religious Christmas day

for Terry being an atheist. My dad elaborated that his house growing up “we were never that
strict for either side of religion, but if anything it was more Jewish dominant, my mom would

sometimes make us wear a yamaka or Kippah, but we didn’t go to the Synagogue every Sunday.”

My dad also said they never had a Bar Mitzvah on their 13th birthday for him or his older

brother, it was just more of a celebration or party, but no religion included. Due to their

household not being strict on religion for both Judaism and Atheism, it never had a huge impact

on my dad and his thoughts or decisions. If anything, the lack of religious practices made him

care less about God and religion for the future, especially in college when he departed from his

family. My dad never felt separated from his friends in school and in the neighborhood, as it

often never came up in conversation with them. But also he did not feel separated because they

still had other traditions that did not involve Judaism, and were more traditional.

While my dad’s parents were so lenient, growing up with these religious standards I

asked if my dad ever thought of continuing these traditions in his household whenever he would

have kids. My dad explained “it never crossed my mind, the Jewish traditions I had growing up

were great, but I never thought to carry them on into my own family. I think I just wanted

something new and wasn’t sure if I wanted my kids to practice Judaism.” Religion had little to

no impact on my dad growing up, therefore he did not think it would impact his kids later on

either.

My dad has now been a Christian for about 15 years and I questioned if he ever missed

his old traditions and practices as a kid, because sometimes that is what makes a person and their

traits around holidays. My dad described it as “I really enjoyed them and cherished them when I

was younger, but I don’t think I miss them and loved them enough to have that incorporated into

our family now. I don’t think much about the traditions anymore and didn’t have much meaning

towards them because I was so young to realize.” I believe this is more of a guy “thing,” where
they often do not hold on to traditions for too long, and are always willing to change. I can attest

to this because it happens to my own family at home. My mom and I are the ones carrying on

Christmas and holiday traditions every year, and my dad and brother do not play much part in

them, they just tag along every year.

Irene worked hard in these traditions and made sure her family knew growing up that she

still cherished her religion, just celebrated in a different way. Religion was more important to

Irene than it was my dad, and having an Atheist father with no push for practicing other religion,

this has affected my dad in the sense that religion is not what you need to live and abide by.

Asking my dad if having parents with two different religions has affected him in any way, he

explained that it did not have much effect on him and his religious preferences. I followed up

with a question of, “Do you think the religions affected your lack of thinking about religion?”

My dad stated that it definitely would have something to do with it and growing up in a

household that does not push religious practices has affected his absence in thought about

religion.

Whenever my dad's parents come to visit us every year, I question if there was ever a

clash in knowing that he will encounter people with completely different religious views. Are

the conversations altered or different? Is Irene or Terry ever disappointed that you did not follow

in their religious footsteps? The conversations never seem awkward, but also religion is never

brought up. So I think about the conversation that would happen if we did discuss this topic.

My dad stated that “it is never tense with my parents and they do not look at me differently,

knowing that I am not Jewish or Atheist. They are loving parents who support me in any

decisions I choose to make.” Being a Christian has caused no family conflict, and my dad

switched over to Christianity when he met my mom. He did this because he knew how
important it was for her, and he loves her so much he would do anything for my mom. My

mother, Jodie Moyes, grew up in a Catholic household but knew she wanted to raise her kids in

Christianity. My dad switching over to this religion was not dramatic, as he has not practiced it

since high school, but during this time of practicing this new religion, he was so accepting and

appreciative.

Some key takeaways I have received from this interview is the effect your parents and

childhood can have on your perspective of religion. With my dad not growing up in a strict

Jewish household, or having pushed atheist views, religion was never his priority. For my

brother and I, because of how we grew up with my parents and their beliefs, we have made our

religion very important and has become the central aspect of our lives. Another take-away I

found was that people will do anything for love. I say this specifically for religion, but if people

can change their religious practices, and move countries for someone they love, then the

possibilities are endless for what anyone can do. At the end of this interview, my dad was able to

reflect about his family and resurface feelings and emotions from his childhood traditions. My

dad said “talking about this brought up a lot of memories I forgot about, and I even remember the

taste of my mom's matzo ball soup she would make during Christmas time, it was killer soup.”

Seeing my dad and the way he talked about his past times was rewarding for me as well. He was

so excited and enthusiastic about this topic and very elaborate for every detail he shared. Having

this type of conversation is definitely something I would love to have again.