Notes on Getting Married in Israel in a Pandemic

In September 2020, as cases of the coronavirus rose, Mosaic’s Krauthammer Fellow Tamara Berens moved to Israel and documented the journey. Three months later, during another spike in cases, she was married. Here, she narrates that process and turns her eye on the country around her.

On Sukkot, the Jewish festival of booths, it is customary to set up a hut outside one’s home—typically used for all daily activities including eating, sleeping, and davening (praying.) One’s life moves to the hut, a semi-outdoor structure that is intended to allow just enough light through its bamboo roof to glimpse a peek at the stars. This Sukkot, while Israel was under one of its many autumn lockdowns, all of Tel Aviv seemed to have fallen in line with the spirit of this festival. They moved outdoors—to the beach.

Beachgoing for leisure was not on the list of permissible activities during lockdown, and strict fines loomed. Sunbathers began an elaborate dance around the many cop cars roaming the beach to avoid getting caught. When police jeeps rolled close to the water, surreptitious swimmers bolted for the shore. When the police approached the sandy strips along the tayelet, the beachside promenade, sunbathers ran to the sea. One older woman had it down to an art. She brought a jump-rope to feign exercise—permissible—and began to hop as police handed out fines to the lazier folk around her.