Tirtza and David

EAST MEETS WEST IN JERUSALEM
Two High Tech Pros Unite
In Matrimony At Western Wall

BY TIM BOXER

T

WO high tech professionals, one from America, the other from India, faced each other on Jan. 21 under a white silk chupah (marriage canopy) overlooking the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Gideon Sylvester brought East and West together with the union of Tirtza Ruth and David Boxer. Sylvester, the former rabbi of the Radlett United Synagogue, a fast growing modern Orthodox synagogue in London, is the British United Synagogue’s rabbi in Israel. He is also Senior Rabbinic Educator in Israel for T'ruah – The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.　

Forty family members and friends gathered under the stars to participate in the outdoor ceremony in the Old City. They wined, dined and danced into the night. Later that week the families celebrated again with an intimate festive dinner at the King David Hotel.

Tirtza and David met in North Carolina four years ago. He was a software engineer at IBM in the Research Triangle Park; she was a semiconductor engineer at Cree in Durham, manufacturer of light-emitting diode (LED) devices. Both moved to Boston where David continued with IBM, and Tirtza switched to Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, or　MEMS technology, at Analog Devices, a semiconductor design and manufacturing company. They are members of Chabad of Harvard.

Bride and groom unite under the chupah

Tirtza is the daughter of John Mathew, a retired chemistry lecturer, and Reena Mathew, both of Kerala, India. After she received her B.A., Tirtza came to the University of Arizona, where she earned a Masters Degree in electrical engineering.

David, born in Manhattan, received a B.A. at Cornell and a Masters in computer science at the University of Illinois. His mother is Nina Boxer. His father, Tim Boxer, has been a celebrity columnist of the New York Jewish Week for 38 years, now online at TheJewishWeek.com, and simultaneously editor of 15MinutesMagazine.com for 16 years. Previously he was PR director of Playboy in New York, entertainment columnist at The New York Post for two decades, and author of two Hollywood books.

Among the guests were David’s brother, Gabriel Boxer, who came from New York with his wife Rebeka, two daughters, AnnaRuth and Deena, and son Johnathan. Five months later Rebeka gave birth to a third daughter, EllaRose.