“L’dor v’dor” is a Jewish concept that expresses how our values and traditions are passed on from generation to generation.
Last month, the Baltimore Jewish Times introduced a new monthly section called “Remember When,” where we share pages of the JT from the past. Looking through more than a century of articles documenting Baltimore Jewish life, I was struck by how the same topics have stayed relevant to the community for generations.
This month, I wanted to share something that I know many of our community members reminisce about — reading engagement announcements in the JT. While we do still sometimes publish engagement and other lifecycle announcements in our magazine, we don’t do it as frequently anymore. Nowadays, people prefer to share that kind of news on social media. But, as this page from the Feb. 10, 1961 issue demonstrates, your local news publication used to be your main source for finding out who had just gotten engaged or who had just had a baby. (FYI: If you do want to announce a b’nai mitzvah, engagement, wedding, birth or other celebration in the JT, you can do so for free by filling out our form on our website at jewishtimes.com/category/community/celebrations.)
This page shares the engagement news of a few couples: Sheila Faye Block and Jerome Wexler, Sandra Marcus and Jack Raphael, Elaine Beverly Goldman and Zane Seidel, Norma Rochman and Raymond Abrams, and Gloria Miriam Shevitz and Robert Hoffman.
Something I noticed as I looked at this page is that all the engagement announcements seem to be done by the bride’s parents. Nowadays, that’s not always the case. In fact, it’s not uncommon for both sets of parents to make the announcement together.
So even if the way we usually share lifecycle announcements looks a little different now, our community’s interest in celebrating simchas in our lives remains the same.
