Limmud Bay Area Festival 2019

What stories can be found between the seams of a wedding gown?  Can it bear a Jewish identity? And why is the wedding gown white?  In her lecture, Ya’ara Keydar, fashion historian, celebrates Jewish life, fashion and history through the universal, popular appeal of weddings.  From an improvised wedding dress made from a parachute in a Displaced Persons camp; to one bridal gown for three Kibbutz brides; and a Moroccan Jewish bride wearing her shrouds underneath her gown; these are a few of the remarkable stories found in A Jewish Wedding: a curated collection of personal wedding photos found in Jewish family albums.  Through breathtaking images, videos and gowns spanning from the 19th century to the late 1980s, this lecture brings together— for the first time—the visual stories of Jewish marriages from around the world.  These depict personal stories, but also reveal a striking collective one.  The lecture illuminates various layers of the Jewish wedding ceremony, and expands the history of fashion and bridal gowns, all in dialog with aspects of Jewish life in the diaspora, and aspires to create a perfect harmony between fashion, sentiment, memory and education.  In its attempt to create a contemporary discourse, the lecture will include innovative and contemporary bridal gown designs by Israeli designers.  Ya’ara invites the audience on a journey that meanders through loss, heartfelt moments, but also love, life, hope and unity.