On November 10th, 2024 we were married in the Stadttempel synagogue in Vienna, Austria. Of over 90 synagogues, it was the only one to survive Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938.
On that night 86 years earlier, the Nazis torched Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. Lauren’s grandmother, Betti, is a Holocaust survivor from Vienna, and it was only she & her brother Herman who made it out alive. Narrowly escaping death on Kristallnacht, Herman ran through the same cobblestone streets we walked on our way to be married. Arriving home, beaten and bloody, he resolved to get them out of Europe.
The Stadttempel was constructed from 1824-1826 into a block of houses hidden from plain view of the street. Emperor Joseph II had decreed that only Roman Catholic churches were allowed to be built directly facing public streets. This edict ultimately saved the Stadttempel, as it could not be burned without setting fire to the other buildings on the block.
The names of the 65,000 Austrian Jews murdered in the Holocaust, including Lauren’s great-grandparents & great-great-grandfather, are engraved on the memorial immediately outside of the sanctuary of the Stadttempel.
We know that they, along with the rest of European Jewry, were smiling down from above with immense pride as we celebrated our love, faith, and that we are still here. Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱
Chazzan: @jonny_moses_son_music
Ketubah: @ttfcreations
Catering: @alefalefvienna
Cake: @vienna_kosher_torten
Photography: @igor.mayherkevych
Planning/decor: @oneofakind.weddings
