Everything
Continued from Page 8
“However, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis find
no legal objection to the double-ring ceremony.”
Inscriptions on the inside of the wedding bands is also a more
recent concept. She cited the growing trend to inscribe Hebrew
phrases, including the popular gender-neutral phrase “Ani L’Dodi
V’Dodi Li (I Belong to My Beloved and My Beloved Belongs to Me).”
Sign Me Up
Perhaps one of the biggest changes to customary Jewish marriage
traditions is the signing of the ketubah — more specifically, the
terms laid out in the document.

“Spelling out a husband’s obligations to his wife, the ketubah was
a radical document in its day because it provided women with legal
status and rights in marriage,” Thompson wrote. “Up until recently,
the text for ketubot has remained virtually unchanged. But many
couples that consider the traditional ketubah to be out of touch with
contemporary views on relationships are creating new ones.”
The writing itself has even become more inclusive and egalitarian.

“Many ketubot now include parallel declarations of commitment
made by both bride and groom with a joint declaration of faith in
God and a connection to the Jewish people,” Thompson wrote.

Further, whereas the ketubah was written in Aramaic in the past,
many couples now choose “English text that describes the home
they want to build together or the nature of the love they share,” ac-
cording to an article by Valerie S. Thaler on MyJewishLearning.com
observing the changes in today’s Jewish wedding ceremonies.

“Still other couples do away with the Aramaic entirely,” Thaler wrote.

“These couples may compose their own ketubot in English and Hebrew
in accordance with the values they want to govern their marriage.”
But the most interesting shift with the signing of the ketubah is
how popular it has become among those who aren’t even Jewish.

With interfaith marriages becoming more common — a 2015
Pew Research Center study showed that “that almost four in 10
Americans (39 percent) who have married since 2010 have a
spouse who is in a different religious group” — people are seeing
the ketubah as a means of consecrating their marriage, even if
they aren’t Jewish.

An article in The New York Times stated that “such sentiments
have been reshaping the market for ketubot in the past decade.”
The author of the article, Samuel G. Freedman, a professor at
Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, shared how
Michael Shapiro, who sells artistic ketubot through his website
ketubah.com, had seen “the non-Jewish share of his customers rise
from zero to about 10 percent.”
As a result, Shapiro started ArtVows.com, a new site focused on
selling ketubot for non-Jewish customers.

Ketubot have also become more of an artistic statement than just
a signed document that gets stashed away for safekeeping. Many
businesses like Shapiro’s offer decorative ketubot that people can
frame and display in their homes after their wedding — even the
National Museum of American Jewish History offers more than 500
ketubah choices through their online store.

Global Traditions
Jewish weddings often carry over the same customs and traditions, but
in many countries, Jews sprinkle in elements of their culture as well.

In India, for example, a henna tattoo carries cultural significance
that marries itself (sorry) into a Jewish wedding ceremony.

See Everything, Page 12
Name: Hard Rock Cafe
Width: 7.5"
Depth: 4.75"
Color: Black plus one
Comment: Simchas 3/31/16
Ad Number: 00064932
HAVE A PARTY SO GOOD EVERYONE
WILL BE BEGGING FOR AN ENCORE!
Crank up your event at the Hard Rock. It’s a one of a kind
party venue where you can throw down like rockstars!
Private space for Bar/Bat Mitzvahs,
Wedding Receptions, and Rehersal Dinners.

PHILADELPHIA | 1113-31 MARKET ST. | +1-215-238-1000
HARDROCK.COM #THISISHARDROCK
©2015 Hard Rock Cafe International (USA), Inc. All rights reserved.

JOIN HARDROCKREWARDS . COM
10 MARCH 31, 2016
SIMCHAS JEWISHEXPONENT.COM