Jewish Bridal Show
Traveling fashion show to highlight Jewish brides through the ages
Jewish women throughout the community can experience a one-of-a-kind bridal event when the international traveling show The Jewish Bride Through the Ages and Around the World appears at the Shul-Chabad Lubavitch in West Bloomfield on Sunday, Jan. 12.
This unique fashion show is presented through costume and song, with accompanying historical narrative. Eight brides will be featured, representing various heroines of biblical and historic times.
Local women will model the elaborate wedding gowns, flanked by volunteer flower girls and bridesmaids.
The eight featured brides will be Rebecca and Rachel from the Torah; LaLa Suleka, a Morrocan bride from the 1800s; Deborah, daughter of the great Rabbi Akiva; Esther Golda, a bride from a Russian shtetl; Tikvah, a Yemenite Sephardic bride; Mariasha from the Soviet Union; and Shirah, a modern Ashkenazic bride.
Miriam Hurvitz of New York created the show after doing extensive research to accurately depict the bridal costumes of each era.
The craftsmanship she put into these costumes is amazing, said Itty Shemtov, the Shuls program director. The narration helps women connect with heroines of the past and how the lessons they teach us apply to our lives today.
The afternoon also will include an entertaining presentation by internationally renowned speaker and performer Chaya Teldon of Long Island, N.Y., entitled As Women Inspire, Generations Aspire.
A mini-Chinese auction will be held to help offset cost of the program. Prizes will include gift certificates to local spas and various health and wellness products by Homedics.
In true wedding style, there will be an elegant 40-foot dessert buffet. Southfield-based party planner Linda Klein of Elegance provides the sweets.
We are treating this just like an actual wedding, Klein said. All of the linens, props and sweets are being custom made for this event.
There will be an actual wedding cake, a chuppah (wedding canopy) covering the sweet table, rose-covered pillars, an edible miniature chocolate chuppah and custom-decorated chocolates for each guest to take home.
The real beauty of this program is uniting all of these organizations and bringing together Jewish women of all generations and all affiliations, said Miriam Amzalak of Oak Park, who is coordinating the program. This is an opportunity to see these women come to life on stage and to identify with and adapt their spiritual strengths to our own lives.
Sponsors include Bais Chabad of Farmington Hills, Bais Chabad of North Oak Park, Bais Chabad Torah Center, Chabad of Ann Arbor, Chabad of Commerce, Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe, Lubavitch Womens Organization, the Shul, Birmingham-Bloomfield Chai Center, BBYO-Michigan Regional Bnai Brith Girls and the Jewish News.
The show will be going to France following its Detroit appearance.