Jewish Wedding in Boca Raton | by Rabbi Amy Rader | Neshamah Institute

I’ve known Sydney since she was a young girl standing on the bimah for her Bat Mitzvah. I remember her parents, Wendy and Hersh, when they first moved to Boca Raton all those years ago, sitting in my office, talking about how they would build a Jewish family here in South Florida. For years afterward, I heard Sydney’s voice in the Neshamah choir, and I watched her grow into the remarkable, driven, deeply caring woman she is today. To stand under the chuppah with her as she married her person … that’s a blessing I don’t take lightly.

At The Neshamah Institute, our approach to Jewish weddings in South Florida is rooted in deep personal relationships. We don’t just show up for the ceremony, we walk with couples through every step of the journey, from the first meeting to the moment the glass is broken. Sydney and David’s wedding was a beautiful example of what that looks like.

How They Found Each Other

Sydney and David’s love story is one of those that begins quietly and then, all at once, becomes everything. They met during COVID,  a time when everyone was figuring out how to be real with each other because there was no other option. David, a software engineer, had come home to Florida from Chicago to visit his parents. Sydney was in the middle of medical school, at a turning point. They went on a handful of dates in quick succession. Then, as pandemic life pulled everyone back to their separate corners, Sydney did something brave: she sent a long text.

I like you. I think it’s worth making it work long distance.

And just like that, a long-distance love story began, built on honesty, consistency, and a quiet certainty that doesn’t announce itself but simply is.

A Proposal in Portugal

Fast forward to November 2024. David – the one who typically shows up while Sydney runs the spreadsheets – planned the entire proposal himself. He was nervous. He arranged everything. He got it exactly right. Sydney, who is almost always the one in charge of the plans, was completely surprised.

Portugal was the perfect backdrop for a couple who loves to travel, explore, and embrace adventure together. And it became the story they’ll tell forever: the moment Sydney realized that sometimes, the best things happen when you let go of the spreadsheet.

The Week of the Wedding

True to who they are, Sydney and David didn’t slow down in the final stretch. Sydney was finishing one of the most intense rotations in medicine – emergency trauma, on call every third day. They showed up to their Jewish wedding ceremony the way they show up for each other every day: fully, without fanfare, with everything they had.

Friends and family gathered from every chapter of their lives. Sydney’s four brothers, childhood friends, college years, the people who watched this love take shape from the very beginning. David’s parents, Ilana and Rony, brought warmth and joy that merged seamlessly with the family Wendy and Hersh built here in Boca Raton. Under the chuppah, surrounded by everyone who loves them, Sydney and David made their covenant.

The Dvar Torah: What Rabbi Amy Spoke About

At Neshamah, our Jewish wedding ceremonies in South Florida are personal, layered, and Jewishly rooted, whatever the couple’s background or level of observance. For Sydney and David, the D’var Torah drew from the Book of Exodus: a story about journeys, about walking into uncertain waters before they part, about showing up every single day.

The manna in the wilderness wasn’t given all at once, it arrived each morning, just enough for that day. Love is like that. Not one grand gesture, but the daily choice to be present, to listen, to carry more than your share when the other person needs you to.

David is Sydney’s calm in the storm. He listens when she needs to vent after a brutal shift. He doesn’t try to fix everything, he just hears her. And Sydney, even in the intensity of medical training, leads with directness, warmth, and fierce loyalty. They bring out the best in each other. That’s the whole story, really.

A Blessing

Sydney, from that Bat Mitzvah girl to this brilliant doctor and beautiful bride, I have loved watching you become who you are. And David, I see exactly why she chose you.

May your home be filled with the love your parents modeled for you. May you keep showing up for each other, every single day. May you keep traveling, exploring, laughing –  and may you always remember that moment in Portugal when you both knew: this is it. This is the person I walk into the sea with.

Mazel tov, Sydney and David. What a joy it was to celebrate you.