Invaluable gifts of time — and timeless — treasures. SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER T he classic wedding present — wrapped in sparkly silver paper or inserted into a greeting card — is, no doubt, much appreciated; and if it comes from the couple’s registry, even anticipated. But, once in a great while, a gift comes with such extended meaning and touching, per- sonal consideration that, for the recipients, it is priceless. health, fertility, wisdom and security. “Ofer’s late dad was Moroccan, and it’s a TOP TO BOTTOM: typical Sephardi tradition to have a henna An heirloom tapestry in ceremony sometime the week of the wedding,” Jennifer and Saul Rube’s said Julie of West Bloomfield. “We put our own home. spin on it and did it at the wedding reception instead to be able to include all of the guests Ofer and Julie Ohana and family from out of town.” during the henna The ceremony included special music and ceremony outfits — including caftans, hats and scarves at their wedding. — brought with Ofer’s sister from Israel. FAMILY HEIRLOOM Andy and Erika Bocknek “Ofer and I were sitting on ‘thrones,’ and his For Jennifer Epstein Rube and her husband, under the chuppah. mom and stepmom and sisters brought over Saul A. Rube, of Oak Park, a fabric art piece a pair of vintage white gold and diamond ear- was not only a gift of beauty, but one that Thea Gardin, 6, and her rings and a necklace,” Julie said. “I had no idea also became an everyday reminder of the sister Ava, 2, with their that this was coming, and it was given by such gift-giver and of Jennifer’s ancestry. mom, Miriam, lighting special people at such a special moment, when “My Grandpa Julian died three weeks her grandmother’s I was already feeling like the luckiest person in before my engagement,” Jennifer said. “When candlesticks. the world. family was going through his possessions, my “They are, to date, the best gifts I have got- sister had a tapestry — painted by my great- ten from him,” she added. “I so treasure these grandmother Adele Priebatsch Lewinthal in pieces of jewelry. I wear them and remember those feelings Mississippi in the early 1900s — restored as a wedding gift. of happiness, and it makes me feel that same way still. This It had spent 60-plus years rolled up in a closet in my grand- jewelry is just one more symbol and reminder of how lucky parents’ Erie, Pa., home. It is a copy of a ‘famous’ painting Ofer and I are. We love each other more today than eight that no one — including us — seems to know and my years ago, and I know we will continue to love each other grandpa always called ‘Rebecca by the Well.’” even more each day that goes by.” The Rubes, who were married at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in December 1997, both “love family heirlooms,” Jennifer said. “When we got married, I knew that we were EVOKING MEMORIES not just merging our lives but those of our families and In the Oak Park home of Bayla Hochheiser-Berman and her those of our histories. This was a beautiful tangible expres- husband, Sruly Berman, is a one-of-a-kind garnet-colored sion of that. The tapestry proudly hangs in our home over mezuzah that evokes the honor and memory of a beloved our staircase. Every day when I walk downstairs to greet aunt. the day I see the reminder of my sister’s gift and my family’s “When each of my five siblings got married, my Aunt history.” Tami Fink wanted to buy them something Jewish as a wed- ding gift; so she and my Uncle Gary, who lives in Oak Park, SHARED CULTURAL TRADITIONS would buy a glass to be broken under the chuppah, which In the midst of a newly experienced very old custom that she then had placed into a mezuzah case,” said Bayla, who took place at Julie Ohana’s January 2009 wedding reception was married at the Adoba Hotel in Dearborn. Her aunt at the Birmingham Community House, came an unexpect- passed away before her July 2013 wedding, but her uncle ed gift from her new husband, Ofer. continued the tradition. “We picked the color for the mezu- In the first minutes of her marriage, Julie became the zah because my aunt always wore black, grey and red. Every focal point of a unique ceremony she had never seen before, time I look at it, I think of my aunt. My husband never got a where mud-like red henna dye is placed on the palms of chance to meet her, but he feels like he knows her through the bride and groom to symbolically bestow to them good the mezuzah. continued on page 34 C32 celebrate! • 2017 jn BRETT MOUNTAIN To The Bride And Groom!