Question for interfaith couples if one of you is Jewish

Hello! I am Jewish. My fiance is atheist. His father is Jewish and his mother converted to Judiasm before he was born. All of his 1/2 brothers are not Jewish. We are having a Jewish ceremony and we are signing a Ketubah even though he fought me. I am not really sure what you mean by making it relevant to both of us. But, we are having a small intimate ceremony right before the big ceremony for the Ketubah signing. This will be after our first look. It will include all the relevant information including his hebrew name.

I am not sure what you should do about his hebrew name. This is a tough one. I would definitely do it if you want to though. It is very special!

My nephew's bride is Jewish (he is not) and they had the Ketubah signing ceremony before the larger ceremony that was co-officiated by a Protestant minister and a rabbi.

If he has no Hebrew name, you can pick one. That's what my Dad did. Or you can transliterate his name into Hebrew letters.

I'm half Jewish and my FH is technically full Jewish since his mom converted to Judaism for FH's dad before FH was born, but she doesn't practice since she got divorced, so he's basically a half-and-halfer like me.

We are not signing a ketubah, but we are going to have a mostly secular wedding. The only Jewish elements I'm I clouding are e chuppah (it's pretty) and the glass breaking (it's fun). Not doing Hebrew or a rabbi or anything. I think if you want to call your ceremony a religious ceremony, though, signing one might be a good idea.

My fiance is Jewish, I am Catholic. We are not planning to sign a ketubah, mostly because he is not very religious, and we likely will not be married by a rabbi.

He did recently serve as a witness for a friend's ketubah, though, and honestly, it was a very moving part of the wedding. I also like the idea of having a beautiful reminder of your marriage promises hanging in your home that you can see everyday. Both the MOG and MOB also really enjoyed breaking the plate after it was signed

I would suggest talking to your parents to see what they think. If it is important to you, there are a lot of ways to make it either more secular or adapting it to both religions/traditions (just google "interfaith ketubah").

If you do decide to do one, please post pics! I love seeing what couples choose and how unique they all are

My fiance is Jewish and I am not. We decided a long time ago that we would be having a Jewish ceremony, complete with ketubah and a chuppah. We are being married by a Rabbi who is a friend of my family.

I think you should make your ceremony about the two of you. If there are elements that are important to each of you, work with your officiant to make it special to you. Our Rabbi has a basic ceremony to start from, but told us that he would incorporate just about anything we wanted.

I'm not Jewish, but I think if it's important to you or to your families (or simply tradition), then you should have one. In my opinion, if you're doing it, do it as it was traditionally done instead of trying to make it "relevant to both of you", because otherwise it's not really a ketubah, and I think what makes it special is the tradition. Please share what you decide with us! It sounds like you'll have a beautiful wedding and marriage!

My nephew's Ketubah was relevant to them -- the background was a photo from a trip they made to Mexico and the promises were typically them.

I"'m Jewish, FH is not. We're having a Ketubah (it should actually be arriving any day now!), and we picked an Interfaith text. In fact, I let FH pick the design of the Ketubah, because I wanted him to feel some connection to it. His name (and his Mom's name) were transliterated into Hebrew, and I'm really excited to see it.

It's never been important to me to have a ketubah. I didn't like the idea of a marriage contract because it made me think of a business deal or something - not very romantic. But our officiant explained it as more like a love letter you write each other, or vows. I like that idea much more! A traditional Jewish wedding doesn't have personalized vows, so they go in the ketubah instead.

I guess we need to decide pretty soon about doing personalized vows and/or ketubah.

It's interesting. The Ketubah was, historically, a very specific text, that enumerates very specific obligations the man and woman must provide each other. It was a legalistic divorce document. Today, religious Jews still use that same document! But most less-religious Jews use more general "commitment texts" or variations of it -- something like, memorializing your vows.

One of the most interesting trends in the Ketubah space has been to increasingly use Ketubahs ("Ketubot" in the Hebrew plural!) as a work of art. A way to memorialize your vows and hang in your house, to see it every day. Very few Jews did that a century ago, but now, a majority of Jews do!

I hope this helps!!!

-morgan

@Jennifer A, where did you find the interfaith text?

@Emily-- if you google "interfaith ketubah" you should find a ton.

Here is one site that has a couple of examples:

http://www.mpartworks.com/interfaith-ketubah-text.htm

Yes - Sorry, was off the site for a few days- but that's exactly where we got ours from!

I picked Interfaith IV (4), because I really liked the wording. Not very "contract-y" at all.

In addition to the significance of the document itself, I like it as a piece of artwork that we'll be able to hang in our new home. We picked ou the design "Winter Embrace" (or something like that)...

I was not Jewish (converted after the wedding) but I loved the idea of having a marriage contract to hang in our house for our future children. We got the "interfaith" type, and my Rabbi read it in Hebrew and English. I also just had him write out my English name in Hebrew letters for the Ketubah signing.