Web Desk:
According to Al-Arabiya news, Bahrain staged its first Jewish wedding in over half a century last weekend as the son of the country’s first Jewish diplomat was married in a luxury hotel. Bahrain is one of the countries to have signed the Abraham Accords, a series of international agreements that paved the way for normalized relations with Israel.
The event at the Ritz Carlton Manama, ordained by the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), was also the first strictly kosher wedding in the Kingdom’s history and was arranged by the Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kosher certification agency. Ambassador Houda Nonoo hailed the monumental event that was officiated by Rabbi Elie Abadei from the AGJC.
AGJC Rabbi Dr. Eli Abadie said: “This wedding was even more significant as it was the first Jewish wedding in more than half a century in the GCC’s only indigenous Jewish community. I was honored to officiate the wedding. It is so fulfilling for me to see a resurgence of Jewish life in this region.”
Ambassador Houda Nonoo, the former Bahraini Ambassador to the US, tweeted about the wedding noting that the couple who got married is her son and daughter-in-law.
Yesterday was historic as we celebrated the first Jewish wedding in #Bahrain in 52 years! While I know that every mother thinks their child’s wedding is monumental, this one truly was! it’s very hard to find adequate words to describe how much it means for it to be my son pic.twitter.com/Lbb8w8TOqW
— Houda Nonoo (@hnonoo75) October 11, 2021
The wedding follows a series of Jewish lifecycle events in Gulf Arab countries that were previously hostile to Israel, including a bat mitzvah in Oman and a pre-Pesach seder involving the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
The Abraham Accords have seen Israel establish diplomatic relations with several Arab countries for the first time. In addition to Bahrain and the UAE, Sudan and Morocco have taken steps to build closer ties. Israel formally opened offices in Bahrain last month and in Morocco in August in the latest enlargement of its diplomatic network after the Abraham Accords were signed last year.
This post was originally published on VOSA.
