bridal

on the cover

A local wedding brims with love —
for each other, for family and friends
and for the beauty of Judaism.

Straight From

The

Heart

LYNNE KONSTANTIN ARTS & LIFE EDITOR
AMANDA DUMOUCHELLE PHOTOGRAPHER

I

Meredith and Yoni made a donation in each guest’s
name to the American Friends of Magen David Adom,
Israel’s national emergency service.

t all began with a bike ride.
The former Meredith Cohen grew up
as a congregant at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield, where her parents, Linda
and Rick, have been active.
Although she’d been raised in a kosher
home, “and Judaism had always been central
to who I am,” she says, “the way in which I
connect to Judaism has been and continues
to be a journey. I spent every Friday night
with my family for Shabbat dinner, but that
was the extent of my Shabbat observance.”
When a brand-new young, cool and
undeniably handsome rabbi found his new
home at Shaarey Zedek, Meredith’s mom sug-
gested she show him the fun side of living in
Michigan.
“I was like, ‘No, he’s a rabbi,’” Meredith says.
“’I don’t know what to do with a rabbi.’” Her
mother made the point that she wouldn’t
think twice if he were a woman. She acqui-
esced, begrudgingly.
It was late June, and she ended up taking
Rabbi Yoni Dahlen on a very long, hot bike
ride around Detroit’s Belle Isle.
“I think it’s such an unexpected place,” she
says. “You wouldn’t think, living in Southfield,
that something like that would be so close. I
thought it would be cool to show him there

are these fun, unique aspects of Detroit, and
that there’s so much nature within the city.”
The day went well. “I wasn’t thinking of it
as a date,” Meredith says. “It was a 90-degree
day, we both were sweaty. I was not trying to
impress him at all.
“That night he asked if I wanted to go to a
movie with him. I thought, he’s new in town,
he just wants someone to do things with. We
had dinner first, and we were both talking
about how happy we were being single.”
By the third date, however, things became
clearer to her. “But,” she says, “he says it was
the first date.”
The pair were inseparable from there
although they kept it a secret, even from
her parents. “He was the rabbi of our shul,”
Meredith says. “And they loved him. We didn’t
want people to feel weird. But I do remember
being in shul and watching everyone trying
to fix him up with women. He’d just smile.”
In February, the couple took a quick trip to
Hocking Hills, Ohio — and Yoni was a man
with a plan and a ring in his pocket.
“We went for a hike in the woods when we
got there,” Meredith says. “He had planned
to wait until later in the trip — but we came
to this opening with a little wooden swing,
so he suggested we sit down there for a few

continued on page 54

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January 25 • 2018

jn

ABOVE: Meredith and Rabbi Yoni
Dahlen seal it with a kiss.
RIGHT: Yoni and the flower girls.
FAR RIGHT: The couple circle each
other under the chuppah, flanked
by Meredith’s parents, Linda and
Rick Cohen, to the left, and Yoni’s
parents, Kermit and Mari Dahlen, to
the right.