Marriage proposal at yeshiva dinner

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of February 26, 2010/ 12 Adar 5770

After the dinner video rolled and the awards were presented this past Motza’ei Shabbat at the annual dinner of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and the Rockaways, another image appeared on the video screens. It was a young man who said, “Good evening, most of you don’t know me, but by the time I’m done here tonight I believe few of you will ever forget me.”

He’s probably right.

After introducing himself, Yonatan Farber, 22, went on to explain his intention: “An idea so outlandish, so preposterous; what if some lunatic actually proposed at a school dinner the week before Purim?”

And then he did.

Referring to Rachel Rosenberg, 19, daughter of guests of honor Carolyn and Moishe Rosenberg, video Farber said, “Rachel, please help me make this the most memorable HAFTR dinner ever. Will you marry me?”

Then the real Farber got down on bended knee and awaited her answer.

“You couldn’t really hear the video because everyone was busy cheering and clapping and smiling, and crowding around them like a press conference, as he got down on one knee. I couldn’t tell you exactly what he said, but we know she said yes. It was pretty wild,” said Rosenberg’s ecstatic aunt, Miriam L. Wallach.

Rosenberg is a Woodmere resident and HAFTR graduate who is majoring in dietetics at Queens College. Farber, from Lawrence, graduated from Yeshiva Darchei Torah and Queens College. He is a hedge fund analyst at Goldman Sachs.

The couple met four months ago on a blind date. B’ezrat Hashem, they plan a June wedding.