Mazel Toy!
Nine Month
Ze
The monthly singles
Shabbat service
brought them together.
Mechelle Leduc and David Bernard: Shared values.
CARI WALDMAN
Special to the Jewish News
11111 echelle remembers
meeting David in the
spring of 1997, but it
took him nine long
months to build up the courage to
ask her for a date.
It wasn't the smoke-filled bar
scene where Mechelle Leduc first
laid eyes on David Bernard, but a
Young Adult Shabbat Service at Adat
Shalom Synagogue. The monthly
community service, which rotates
between synagogues, "is a relaxed,
homey place where singles can find
solid relationships," says Mechelle.
7/23
1999
48 Detroit Jewish News
For nine months, Mechelle and
David casually but consistently spot-
ted each other at the Young Adult
Shabbat Service. Mechelle was flirta-
tious in David's company. She
thought he was cute and loved his
dry sense of humor. She had a crush
on him, and was wondering if he
would call her.
David thought she was sweet and
very pretty, but he was shy.
By December 1997, nine months
after that first meeting, David decid-
ed to approach her at services.
With a cool, calm, confident voice,
he greeted her: "Hi Kelly."
"My name is Mechelle," she
embarrassingly corrected him. They
laughed, and shortly thereafter they
made a date.
"Our first date," says David, was
to Greektown, a downtown film festi-
val and dessert at the Traffic Jam
restaurant. It was my longest date ever.
"It was as if we clicked from the
start. The first indication for both of
us that we were each other's soul
mates was our shared interest in
Judaism and the importance of reli-
gion in our lives. We were impressed
with each other's values. Family life
and relationships were big conversa-
tion topics on our first date."
Mechelle had started conversion
classes while dating another boy, and
continued the classes after they broke
off the relationship when she found
that Judaism was important to her.
After their first date, Mechelle
invited David to make latkes for
Chanuka the next night in Romulus,
where she lives with her mother.
As fate would have it, David was
flying to Florida with his parents
and would be staying at a hotel near
the airport in order to catch an early
flight. He was thrilled at the chance
to see Mechelle again.
David's mother could not under-
stand why he would truck through
the snow on a blustery December
night to make latkes with a girl in
Romulus. He went anyway.
David and Mechelle's romance
blossomed. Their dates continued
three times a week, and as their rela-
tionship progressed, the families met
and hit it off.
David, 29, a human resource gen-
eralist at MSX International in
Detroit, and Mechelle, 27, a records
specialist at Jewish Family Service in
Southfield, decided to take their
commitment one step further.
Last September, David proposed
on bended knee. "The jeweler called
one night to let me know the ring was
ready while Mechelle was sitting right
next to me," said David. Of course,
she overheard the conversation, and
made me run out to pick it up."
David returned with a Hershey bar, a
mixed bouquet from Farmer Jack and
ring in hand. And Mechelle said, "Yes."
On Aug. 15 at Congregation Beth
Shalom, David and Mechelle will
wed, surrounded by love ones. Rabbi 7-/
David Nelson and Cantor Samuel
Greenbaum will officiate, along with
David's childhood friend, Cantor
Greenbaum's son Alex, who is a
rabbi in Augusta, Ga., and David's
First cousin, Rabbi Greta Bernard
Brown from New Jersey. I , 1