My father is Jewish and my mother is Catholic. 45 years ago when they got married it was the scandal of the century and both families dis-owned them. I was raised Catholic in a very 'white bread' nieghbourhood and knew almost nothing of my half Jewish heritage. When I got married the first time at eighteen, I married a Jew and converted to Orthodox Judaism (I don't practice anything these days), it was a grueling and extensive course of indoctrination. There was one old Rabbi who could not speak a word of English and the only Hebrew words of his that I could make out were Shaina Punim. He said Shaina Punim over and over and I thought he was saying 'stupid shiksa'(stupid Chrisitan girl). I was so upset that I asked my new mother-in-law-to-be why he was calling me names. She was laughing hysterically when she explained the Shaina means beautiful and Punim means face. Beautiful face?....me?
When I tried to register my cattery CFA Shaina (because all my cats have beautiful faces), I had to change the spelling a bit to get it accepted.