Lubavitch Wedding on Oprah

By COLlive reporter

The wedding of a Lubavitcher couple, showcasing the Chabad customs and halachic laws of a Jewish Orthodox wedding, will be featured on the TV show “Our America with Lisa Ling” on the Oprah Winfrey Cable channel.

Michoel and Chava Shapiro (nee Zviklin) were asked to participate in the show, a documentary film following the lives of several couples from different religions that have taken a traditional path to engagement and marriage.

Chava, who is a writer for Chabad.org’s women’s site Thejewishwoman.org, was suggested to producers by the site’s editor, Sara Esther Crispe, who thought the two would be “the right couple for the project.”

“Chava and I believe that this is a great opportunity to represent the beauty of Yiddishkeit to the broader public,” Michoel Shapiro told COLlive about appearing in the film. “We consulted with well respected leaders in the Chabad community and everyone said the same thing: ‘Go for it!'”

In the week before their wedding, the producers followed both the bride and groom separately, to tell the story of their preparation for the big day.

The crew followed Michoel while preparing for his wedding, like getting a new fedora and Kapota at Primo Hatters and Sartoria Sacho on Kingston Avenue. The crew also interviewed the couple and other people involved in making their shidduch.

At the wedding, which took place Sunday, October 30 at the Crystal Plaza in Livingston, NJ, the show’s videographers discreetly filmed elements of the traditional wedding. They were guided by Sara Esther Crispe, who attended the wedding as well.

The segment is scheduled to air Tuesday night, July 17th, at 10/9 Central on the Oprah Winfrey Network.