No!

It wasn’t a surprise. Months before, she’d told us she’d met a non-Jewish boy. “We’re just friends,” she told me.

But “just friends” had developed, and I took a deep breath and unequivocally told her that, while we loved her, this was something we couldn’t accept. Every time we spoke, I’d repeat the same thing: that our love for her was unchanged, but if she married him, we could have nothing to do with them.

Time after time, we found solace in the dusty, book-laden study of our rav. “Love her,” he said. “But be strong. Tell her what she already knows. That this is something you can’t accept!”

We followed his advice. It became our mantra, a tefillah that she change her mind.