Save the date

Tzvia and Yonah met on one of the social Zoom nights hosted in one of the infamous "MeetJew Dating" facebook groups - started in March 2020, when COVID-19 first forced us all to stay in. Tzvia had been going to the Zoom socials since April, and Yonah joined at the end of May. They connected immediately, bonding over nerdy Jewish questions, like "Why aren't fish meat (according to Jewish law)?" On June 8th, 2020, at 12:23 pm, Yonah reached out to Tzvia on facebook messenger, with the suave and well thought-out message of "hey hey hey". Though they lived in different cities and countries (Yonah in Toronto, and Tziva in Cincinnati), they started going on virtual dates. From their first "is-it-a-date?" date of a Jewish Trivia night run by Yonah's brother Micah, to movie nights, cooking competitions, and Youtube walkthroughs and "bike-throughs" of Paris, Cairo, and Florence, Tzvia and Yonah always found ways of bringing in fun and adventure. After two and a half months of getting to know each other long-distance, Yonah and Tzvia drove to the halfway point between them: a small upstate Ohio town called Oak Harbor to see each other in person for the first time. At the end of a phenomenal week of cooking and eating, swimming and listening to music they made the relationship "facebook official". At the end of October, Yonah came to Ohio again for a slightly longer visit... though nobody anticipated how long the visit would actually go, when border restrictions tightened further and Yonah was effectively "stuck" in the US. Around the same time, Yonah found out that they had been accepted to the Jewish Studies Graduate Certificate at the University of Cincinnati for the following year. Tzvia and Yonah decided to make the best of the situation, and Yonah "moved in" early to the city they had already been living in.

On April 25th 2021, after lots of red tape and more than a few tears, Tzvia and Yonah got authorization and crossed the border into Canada and began a two week quarantine in Yonah's parents' basement. What Tzvia didn't know was that Yonah was already coordinating the proposal, sending emails and having secret conversations with their parents through the screen door. After they emerged from quarantine together, Yonah began disappearing for different "errands". Tzvia had no idea that Yonah was meeting with a jeweller to refurbish the very engagement ring that Yonah's father had used 36 years ago to propose to Yonah's mother. On May 19, 2021, Tzvia was busy planning Yonah's special 30th birthday dinner with the family. What she didn't realize was that she was actually planning her own proposal. From the gourmet Canada themed dinner that Tzvia, Elyse, and Baruch made, to the haircuts and manicures done at home while salons were closed during lockdown, everything was ready for the perfect night. At the end of the dinner, Tzvia was surprised to see her family join via Zoom, and Yonah going down on one knee and pulling out the very special ring to ask "will you marry me". Since then, it has been a whirlwind of excitement as we plan the celebration of our lives. We couldn't imagine any other way to start our married life than with all of you celebrating along with us! Stay tuned for more details as they come!