Click photo to enlarge
Rachel Freedenberg (26) and Dieter Leibold (30), of
California, are married in a Jewish ceremony at the Dunedin
synagogue yesterday. Photos by Craig Baxter.
It was a wedding with a difference in Dunedin yesterday.
Rachel Freedenberg (26) and Dieter Leibold, of Burlingame,
California, were married in a Jewish ceremony at the Dunedin
Synagogue - believed to be the first wedding held at the
venue for more than two decades.
The couple, who travelled around the North Island three years
ago, said they came to Dunedin as they wanted to marry in the
world's southern-most synagogue.
Mrs Leibold had also visited the northern most synagogue, in
Alaska.
A copy editor for a Jewish newspaper, Mrs Leibold said she
had pre-written a story for today about their wedding day,
and was hoping everything would go to plan.
"I am very nervous," she said.
While their immediate family knew of their wedding plans, it
would be a surprise to their wider family and friends, she
said.
"It is semi-secret."
The couple, who were joined by several members of the local
Jewish community, chose the date to mark the beginning of
Hanukkah, the festival of lights.
Click photo to enlarge
Mr Leibold breaks a glass in a cloth during the ceremony.
As part of the ceremony the couple shared a drink of wine
from a 135-year-old silver goblet, exchanged rings, signed a
wedding contract, before Mr Leibold crushed a glass to a chorus
of "mazel tov".
The couple stayed at Larnach Castle last night, and planned a
trip to Bluff and bungy jumping in Queenstown before
returning home after Christmas.
Asked if they would return to Dunedin for their future
wedding anniversaries, the couple said they planned to travel
to the city to mark their 10th anniversary.
If the pair were nervous before the wedding, spare a thought
for their marriage celebrant and president of the Dunedin
Jewish congregation, Ruth Groffman, who led her first Jewish
wedding.
"It went very well, which is just as well, as I have another
Jewish wedding in Wellington next week."
