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Friday October 26, 2007

Love story bridges boundaries

by sefi hendler
ynetnews.com

paris | An unusual love story has swept the French off their feet: A Reform rabbi from the south of France recently married a Protestant minister who’d discovered her Jewish heritage.

Catharine Schtorkel and Jonathan Levy met a little more than a year ago, when Schtorkel started looking into her Jewish heritage.

She was born in Strasbourg, where a large Jewish community resided before World War II. “About a year ago, one of my friends told me that my maternal grandfather was Jewish and suggested I speak to Rabbi Levy in Montpellier.”

Paris-born Levy was glad to help Schtorkel search for her roots, and the two quickly found that her entire family on her mother’s side was Jewish; they were forced to hide their origin during the Nazi occupation.

Since that was the case, Schtorkel — according to halachah — is Jewish.

She began to study Judaism and she and Levy grew closer, eventually falling in love. They decided to make their romance official and were married in Jerusalem last summer.

“When two people love each other they have two choices: They can either marry or continue their romance without marrying,” said Levy. “We chose to marry.”

Added Schtorkel: “This is a marriage of three: Jonathan, me and God. I’m still a Protestant minister and I still believe in Jesus. We pray together every morning.”

Levy sees their marriage “as a symbolic union between the Old Testament and the new one.”

The establishment, however, was not as happy for the two: While Schtorkel was allowed to retain her position as minister of her small town, Levy was ordered to leave his congregation.

The two are planning to move to Israel in the next year or two.

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