Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 5, 2015

Jewish wedding. Image via shutterstock.com

Everyone has certain images they associate with a Jewish wedding: the chuppah, the horah, the breaking of the glass and, of course, large spreads of food. But certain elements can get complicated in a place like Los Angeles, one of Americas largest Jewish melting pots.

Just look at Rabbi Tal Sessler, an Ashkenazic Jew who serves as senior rabbi at Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel. He points out that the mix of diverse Jewish communities cannot help but lead to a different kind of intermarriage between Ashkenazic and Sephardic individuals, for example that he likes to call inter-chuppah.

The impact on wedding ceremonies is inevitable as traditions meld, borrow from and are influenced by one another. For example, Sessler said: One [practice] which is a distinctly Sephardic aspect of the chuppah ceremony is placing a tallit over both the chatan [groom] and the kallah [bride]. It has become increasingly popular in Ashkenazi-American circles. While it is not done in Israel, it is done in American Jewry outside Orthodoxy because people feel strongly about not making their ceremony asymmetrical or overly male-dominated.

Rabbi Menachem Weiss of Nessah Synagogue (a Persian congregation in Beverly Hills), who also is director of the Israel Center at Milken Community Schools, said different customs evolved naturally out of Jews living in different places throughout history. Ashkenazim were originally from France and Germany, while Sephardim were originally from Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East.

The way they were acclimating to the society they lived in affected how they practiced Judaism, as Jewish communities were segregated geographically and the various communities did not connect with each other, Weiss said.

Preserving wedding traditions from each spouses heritage, therefore, has become important not only as meaningful visual adornments for the ceremony but also as a means of following ones family tree.

If I were to trace my roots back and go through my familys line from Spain to Hungary and on to New York City the various things we do are somehow shaped by where my ancestors lived, Weiss said. My spouse brought in Jewish customs shaped by where her family came from through the generations.

Consider some differences: In the Ashkenazic tradition, the Shabbat when the groom is invited to be called up to the Torah takes placebeforethe wedding and is calledaufruf, (Yiddish for calling up). In Sephardic communities, the grooms Shabbat takes place afterthe wedding.Other ceremonial religious traditions that differ include the bedeken (the groom handling the brides veil), with Askhenazi grooms veiling the bride before she walks down the aisle and Sephardic ones only unveiling the bride.

There are cultural differences, too.

Read more from the original source:

When wedding traditions collide

Category: Ashkenazi
Tags: