The Banality of Controversy

Each Monday, we choose the most interestingly Jewish announcement from that Sunday’s New York Times Weddings/Celebrations section. This week feels more complicated than usual. For one thing, we have a World Series champion marrying, pretty obviously, a Jewish woman. For another, we have a long write-up of the Jennifer Miller-Jason Feifer nuptials, disqualified since that happy couple was already featured in Huppah Dreams (on the occasion of a much shorter Times notice) two weeks ago. (Mazel tov indeed.)

This week’s couple, Yonahton Bock and Ronald Kaplan, have also already been featured on The Scroll, but, well, it wasn’t a Huppah Dreams. And their marriage is historic: According to +972, theirs was the first same-sex wedding officiated by an openly gay, ordained Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Steve Greenberg. It is sure to be controversial (they used a substitute for a ketubah and instituted other egalitarian alterations as well), and what will make that controversy ironic is that, except for the fact that they are both men, this is a classic D.C. pairing: a corporate analyst at a Virginia-based bank and an employee of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Each has a postgraduate degree and, now, a husband. Mazel tov to the happy couple!

Yohahtan Block and Ronald Kaplan [NYT]
Related: Orthodox Rabbi Marries Gay Couple in Historic Wedding in D.C. [+972]
Earlier: Sundown: Landmark Orthodox Gay Wedding
Peaceniks