Sara Shonfeld - Rabbi & Interfaith Officiant Reviews
Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 rating
125 Reviews
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Awards
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Featured
![Alexis]()
Alexis R. Sent on 09/29/2022Best officiant evvver!
Rabbi Sara Shonfeld is a wedding GURU!! Her personality and cheerfulness throughout the entire wedding process has made me feel the most excited about our Jewish ceremony! She is so kind, caring, thoughtful and light-hearted! Her professionalism and attention to detail was immaculate in every way. Our guests RAVED about how beautiful and intimate our ceremony was and the highlight being Rabbi Shonfeld! She made us laugh, cry and gave us the ceremony of our dreams :). One of my favorite moments was during the Ketubah signing where she sang beautiful and fun traditional Jewish songs where we laughed and danced. She also kept in touch with us after the wedding and now we are close friends! I can't wait to include her for all our future endeavors as she is truly a blessed and special person. Thank you Rabbi for all that you have done for us! WE LOVE YOU!! Love, The Rubin's -
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Elizabeth C. Sent on 05/08/2024
Rabbi Sara was the BEST!
Rabbi Sara was absolutely AMAZING! She was kind, patient, funny, and engaging. Dozens of our guests raved about the content of the ceremony and her demeanor! Highly highly recommend! -
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![Astride]()
Astride H. Sent on 04/28/2024AWESOME experience
My husband and I talked about honoring our rich faith traditions as we unite in marriage (he was raised in the Jewish faith, and I was raised in the Catholic faith). Rabbi Sara Shonfeld was an absolute GIFT to us from above. We first met on a Zoom call as she listened intently to our love story and our desires for our ceremony. With her gentle guidance, we continued to build upon what we had envisioned for ourselves and what resulted was more beautiful than either of us could have imagined. We had our ceremony at Soundview Caterers with Rabbi Sara on 04/20/2024, and as I am currently writing this a week later, I am still in awe of what a beautiful ceremony it is and my family members have continued to tell me each day since then, what a beautiful and unique ceremony it was. We are so thankful for being able to experience the Lord’s grace in this way. I highly recommend the wedding officiant services of Rabbi Sara Shonfeld. Our ceremony, officiated by Rabbi Sara, was a deeply inspiring interfaith experience. -
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![David & Elissa]()
David E. Sent on 04/08/2024We very highly recommend Rabbi Sara Shonfeld as your wedding officiant!
My partner and I had a Jewish wedding in March 2024 and Rabbi Shonfeld made the ceremony the most memorable part. Although we’re not very religious, we wanted to embrace all of the different aspects of a Jewish wedding but we also did not want our ceremony to be overly long. We met with Rabbi Shonfeld over a year before our wedding date and she really took the time to get to know us and offered a wide variety of options for the ceremony, essentially à la carte. Rabbi Shonfeld provided us with very thorough explanations of the different religious aspects or traditions we could have in our ceremony if we wanted, whether we wanted to make it more reform, conservative or orthodox.
Less than four months before the wedding my mom passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly. Rabbi Shonfeld spent a tremendous amount of time with us to adjust the ceremony to make sure we honored my mom in the best way. She also suggested numerous ways we could do so, and gave examples of things she has done in the past to honor the memory of loved ones during a wedding ceremony. Additionally Rabbi Shonfeld helped us make it so the ceremony honored my mom but also make sure it didn’t feel like a memorial service.
Rabbi Shonfeld was very professional and accessible throughout the entire process when working on delivering our perfect ceremony, and providing exactly what we needed and wanted. She took the time to thoroughly explain everything to us so we understood all of our options and the meanings behind the various wedding traditions.
My partner and I both agree that we believe the ceremony was our favorite part. Rabbi Shonfeld made it so personal, and the perfect combination of serious and some fun, and she never overstepped in any way or interjected too much. We really cannot say enough great things about Rabbi Shonfeld. She was amazing. Everyone told us how beautiful they thought the ceremony was; Rabbi Shonfeld gave us a ceremony beyond our dreams. We highly recommend you use Rabbi Shonfeld as the officiant for your wedding (she also does interfaith weddings!)
Sincerely,
Mr. & Mrs. David & Elissa Figueroa -
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![Erica]()
Erica Sent on 02/08/2024Amazing ceremony !!!
Rabbi Sara and Rev. Deb officiated our wedding 1/27/24. I am Jewish and my husband is Christian and Without a doubt the best part of our wedding was our interfaith Ceremony! They truly made it so special and everyone was talking about how incredible the ceremony was and that they’ve never seen anything so personal and beautiful. There was no dry eye in the house! They were both extremely communicative and made our day so special and perfect. Highly recommend using both Rabbi Sara and Rev. Deb! -
Victoria F. Sent on 12/20/2023
Officiant Rabbi Sara Shonfeld
Rabbi Sara Shonfeld was absolutely wonderful . She seamlessly provided a beautiful ceremony intertwining my Jewish traditions and my now husband's catholic traditions. She made it personal to us both. In a bit of irony Rabbi Sara was ond of the house officiants for or venue. She had also been my cousins kids nursery school teacher at their temple in great neck. However, we found her on wedding wire. It was such a blessing to have such a wonderful person be our officiant for us. We could not be happier. Our guests continue to praise how wonderful the ceremony was. -
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![Jaclyn]()
Jaclyn H. Sent on 12/27/2023Excellent!
Rabbi Sara recently officiated our interfaith wedding. From the beginning Rabbi Sara had such a great energy and her attention to detail was much appreciated. She created a beautiful ceremony combining my Jewish traditions with my husbands Catholic traditions and made everyone feel included. Our guests raved about what a beautiful ceremony it was, and we could not have asked for a better ceremony or officiant! -
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![Jenny]()
Jenny A. Sent on 11/06/2023A truly magical experience
I don’t even know where to begin. Rabbi Shonfeld was truly amazing from start to finish. We first met her through zoom and she introduced herself and her style of ceremony and we knew she was the officiant for us. She friended both my husband and myself on Facebook to help her get to know us.
As time got closer, she had us share our similarities and differences, and our favorite qualities about each other.
She pieced it all together and sent us a beautiful draft of the ceremony that took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes.
As for the wedding day, she reviewed everything with us. The ceremony was absolutely breathtaking. People laughed, people cried. She explained everything in English before saying it in Hebrew. She was lively and you could see her passion behind officiating.
Throughout the rest of the wedding, everyone came over to us saying how wonderful the ceremony was and how much they enjoyed it. I had one more religious guest come over to me and tell me that the ceremony was the most beautiful ceremony she had witnessed.
You are truly in amazing hands with Rabbi Shonfeld! -
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![Kariel]()
Kariel S. Sent on 10/09/2023I wish I could give more than 5 stars!
We worked with Rev. Deb and Rabbi Sara for our interdenominational wedding in September 2023 and I genuinely cannot recommend them more. Every single guest has told us it was the best ceremony they have ever been to. From our very first meeting they were warm, comforting, kind, and put us at such ease. They were extremely responsive and worked with us to tailor a ceremony that was absolutely perfect for us. Every guest felt included and honored. It truly was so beautiful. They also made the marriage license process absolutely seamless. Overall, our expectations were far surpassed and we could not be more grateful! -
Melissa G. Sent on 05/09/2023
Interfaith ceremony 5/6/2023
Rabbi Sara and Rev Deb Viola were both equally amazing ! My husband and I had an interfaith ceremony as my husband is Catholic and I am Jewish. Rabbi Sara and Rev Deb work so well together and knew exactly how to seamlessly blend both of our religions. Communication between all parties was great and always received quick responses, was ready to answer any questions we had even if they were silly. They were both punctual and explained everything to use prior to the ceremony and addressed any additional questions we had. Communication even after the wedding was great ! I highly recommend both Rabbi Sara or Rev Deb for any future event you may have. You will most certainly not be disappointed. -
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![Hayley]()
Hayley Z. Sent on 04/01/2023Wonderful!
Rabbi Sara married my husband and I in February of this past year. We had so many people come up
to us in our cocktail hour to compliment about just how beautiful and meaningful the ceremony was and even tell us that they had never witnessed a ceremony like ours. Rabbi Sara’s way of explaining exactly how the ceremony would flow months before the wedding put us at ease. She goes over every detail , minute by minute. She is very responsive via email and offers wonderful advise and guidance. There were so many special and meaningful elements put into our ceremony. My husband is catholic and I am Jewish. The way she created and outlined the ceremony to touch upon some of the religious traditions we both wanted on our wedding day will forever be cherished. We are eternally grateful to Rabbi Sara for everything she did for us to make our wedding ceremony as special as it was! We can’t wait to work with Rabbi Sara again ! -
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![Sara]()
Sara T. Sent on 10/18/2022A one-of-a-kind officiant who makes everyone feel like family!
Rabbi Sara is the kindest & warmest person that you will ever meet!
She lights up every space she's in and shines sunlight into your ceremony.
About four years ago, I was a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding out in LI.
I knew nothing about Rabbi Sara, but by the end of the ceremony, I knew that I wanted her for my own wedding one day.
Fast forward to this year, she blew it out of the ballpark.
She had everyone smiling and laughing the entire time, and she works hard to ensure that everyone in the audience feels included.
As a guest, you're not an observer, you're a participant when Rabbi Sara is officiating.
Rabbi Sara is also incredibly flexible. She will make any adjustments you want to the ceremony so it matches the feel of the couple.
I'm a reform/spiritual Jew who was brought up in a reform household, and my Husband is an Atheist who was raised Catholic.
We requested to have the english translations removed from the ceremony to make my Husband more comfortable. On top of that, we had a good friend of ours co-officiate so he could tell our story. Rabbi Sara went with the flow the whole time.
She's incredible to communicate with, she's clear in her instructions, she's timely in her preparation and when she shows up to the venue.
Most importantly, she made the ceremony about us and our love for one another.
When you hire Rabbi Sara, you're getting a friend for life who loves to remain in touch.
Thank you Rabbi Sara! You're truly one-of-a-kind and a very special person!
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![Casey]()
Casey Sent on 11/15/2022Wonderful wedding officiant!!
Rabbi Sara was wonderful. She met with us to understand our traditions and what was most important to us for our special day. She was flexible when we had changes to our plan and did a wonderful job leading the ceremony!
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