Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
The Definitive, Completely Up-to-Date Guide to Planning a Jewish Wedding
Since its original publication in 1986, The New Jewish Wedding has become required reading, assigned to engaged couples by Conservative, Reform, and Reconstruc-tionist rabbis alike. In this new revision, Anita Diamant, one of the most respected writers of guides to Jewish life, continues to offer step-by-step guidance to planning the ceremony and the party that follows -- from hiring a rabbi and wording the invitation to organizing a processional and hiring a caterer. She also includes:
A new chapter focusing on converts, non-Jews, and same-sex couples
Essential Web sites
All new art, with examples of ketubot, invitations, and other wedding paraphernalia
New poems and new translations of the seven wedding blessings
Complete, authoritative, and indispensable, The New Jewish Wedding is a must-have resource for anyone who wants a wedding that combines spiritual meaning and joyous celebration.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Very informative and inspirational!
Customer Rating:
This was a quick and informative read. Found Diamant's tone to be respectful, liberating, and educational. Treasure trove of ideas included from how various couples have interpreted Jewish wedding traditions in recent years.
Great resource material if you're planning a Jewish wedding
Customer Rating:
I gave this to my neice who is wanting a Jewish wedding and I used it for my own (neither of us were born Jewish). It's a great reference for the planning of a wedding and also for educating non-jewish guests. Highly recommend it if you just can buy one book!
A dissent from other reviews
Customer Rating:
My fiance and I bought this book at the suggestion of the rabbi who was performing our ceremony. He was raised conservative and I was raised reform but at the time of our marriage was not relgious at all. We both thought it a good idea to check out the book, mainly because the rabbi (conservative) recommended it. In particular, I was interested in learning a bit more to blend in with my now-husband's family.
I think the problem with the book is that it was amazingly condescending. Perhaps for people with absolutely no knowledge of Judiaism it wouldn't have been so. However, to me it oversimplified many concepts, seem to claim there was only "one right way" to have a Jewish wedding in some respects, and left out the key information we were looking for -- namely the appropriate processional and recessional formations for a couple without significant family issues or discord.
My suggest about this book would be to purchase only if you have little or no prior knowledge of Judiasm or Jewish weddings. Otherwise, it really did not go past the information we received from our Rabbi and our own personal knowledge.
She likes it, so it must be good
Customer Rating:
I got this book for my fiance on the recommendation of my Rabbi. She loves it.
This is indeed THE book to get
Customer Rating:
My fiance and I were looking for a book to explain Jewish wedding laws and customs. We bought a few different books, and I think this was by far the best.
I particularly liked its clarity and organization. While other books bombard you with random Hebrew and Yiddish terms (sometimes translating them into English and leaving out the original language), this book takes time to explain them. It distinguishes which Jewish wedding practices are law and which are custom. It talks about both Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions and makes it fairly clear which traditions are specific to one ethnicity and which are more universal. It addresses a number of mainstream American wedding practices (such as rehearsal dinners) that are NOT typically a part of Jewish weddings. And it educates in a way that makes me feel like I have a grip on the information, rather than throwing out pieces of information that make me go "Huh? What's up with that?"
There is a reason rabbis recommend this book. If you have any interest in learning about Jewish weddings, especially if you want to incorporate Yiddishkeit into your own wedding, this is the book to get.
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