Interfaith Weddings

Jewish/Native American Wedding?

I know it's an odd combination but I was curious to see if there were any other Jewish/Native weddings out there!  If so, let me know how you're incorporating both cultures!!

Thanks!

Elizabeth

Re: Jewish/Native American Wedding?

  • artistsusanartistsusan member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Elizabeth,

    You are not alone!

    Susan (Navajo/Bishop Paiute) and I (Jewish) will be married in June. We are working out the same details. Right now we are concentratingon the parallels between the two such as bulding of the Chuppah/Hogan and drinking from the vessel/vase. Also, the use of the Navajo wedding basket for the corn mush. We will both eat from it and pass it around to the guests. But we'll also have all of the classic Jewish elements such as the breaking of the glass and the seven blessings, as well as a Ketubah.
    (Which gives us a great idea, thaks to you - we could do a custom Ketubah in Hebrew and Navajo, except that Navajo is not really a written language, so it would just be English phonetic. However a Ketubah with Jewish/Navajo imagery would be cool!)

    Feel free to email us at andy@enginuity.com, and congratulations!

    Susan and Andy


  • erica918erica918 member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Cool! I'm Jewish and my fiance is partially Chickamagua (they folded into the Cherokee a ways back). We're doing an all-Jewish wedding since he actually didn't grow up with any religion, but our Ketubah has a very 'pictograph' feeling to it: http://thedesignlabboston.com/judaica/ketubot/ketuba-ill2.html

    Its just cool seeing the interfaith mix and knowing that we're not the only ones ;)
  • edited December 2011
    Wow, that's really strange. My fiancee and I are planing the Jewish/Navajo thing too, but since I'm still in the process of converting to Judaism, I'm not sure how much would be "proper" to incorporate to our wedding.  I like the idea of the Ketubah with the phonetic Navajo on it.  We both also have Cherokee in our family and may wish to incorporate any of those traditions that may work.  I haven't found any really detailed info on Native American weddings with things like the corn meal mush recipe or type of clothing or jewelry, and I was hoping to get pointed in the right direction by someone else on the site.  That way I can decide what would work for us.  Any help is appreciated!
  • artistsusanartistsusan member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Regarding the Ketubah with phonetic Navajo, we decided against including Navajo text since Navajo is not a written language, only a spoken one. Susan is making our Ketubah using a Navajo stle tree of life as the base element, which is quite simialr to the Jewish one.

    In termsof things that are common -

    Navajo drink water from the two-spouted vase. Jews drink wine from a glass.
    We will drink wine from the Navajo vase.

    Jews use a chuppah (canopy) for the wedding. We are trying to build a chuppah with  6 sides to look like a Navajo hogan.

    We are also eating the corn mush, there is no Jewish equivalent.
  • edited December 2011
    One of our staff wrote an article about his parents' Jewish/Metis (first nations, in Canada) marriage (http://www.interfaithfamily.com/life_cycle/weddings/Joining_Traditions.shtml), and our recent Wedding Bloggers just had a Jewish/mixed heritage wedding that included traditions from the bride's Native heritage (http://www.interfaithfamily.com/smf/index.php?article=4116).
    InterfaithFamily.com is the premiere web based resource for couples exploring Jewish life and making Jewish choices, and the leading web based advocate for attitudes, policies and practices that welcome and embrace them.
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