Bahrain hosts its first Jewish wedding in 52 years

A Jewish couple’s marriage was hosted in Bahrain for the first time in 52 years on Sunday at the Ritz Carlton Manama.

Arranged by the Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kosher certification agency, the event was also the first strictly kosher wedding in the kingdom’s history.

“All weddings are exciting events as we celebrate the creation of a new Jewish family. This wedding was even more significant as it was the first Jewish wedding in more than half a century in the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) only indigenous Jewish community,” said Eli Abadie, Rabbi of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities.

“I was honoured to officiate the wedding. It is so fulfilling for me to see a resurgence of Jewish life in this region and to assist families throughout the region pray and experience lifecycle events in the GCC.”

Ambassador Houda Nonoo, the former Bahraini ambassador to the US, tweeted about the wedding noting that the couple who got married are 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

Posting a picture of the Jewish couple under a wedding canopy, she wrote: “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.”

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalised ties with Israel at a signing ceremony in Washington last year as part of the so-called “Abraham Accords“. The move was condemned by Palestinians as a step away from the Arab League principles of peace with Israel based on the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

“Of course, with the Abraham Accords we are now starting on a new path,” said Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo, president of the Bahrain Jewish Community and the ambassador’s cousin.

“This wedding was an important moment for our family, the community here in Bahrain, and more broadly, for the Jewish community in the region,” he added.

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