Portland's Jewish community welcomes spring with Hasidic wedding

Rain or shine, snow, ice, or wind, the Jewish people believe in celebration. Members of the Jewish community of southern Maine will be gathering for a very special wedding this month. On Monday, March 8, Shterna Sara Wilansky will be exchanging vows with Menachem Mendel Shemtov.

According to Jewish tradition, the couple will be married under a Chupah — or wedding canopy — erected beneath the open sky. Following the Chupa ceremony, celebrants will join for a reception meal at the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel in Portland.

The bride is the daughter of Rabbi Moshe and Chana Wilansky, who have served as emissaries in southern Maine for the Chabad-Lubavitch Movement for more than 20 years, Chabad of Maine reported. Also attending will be the bride’s grandparents, Rabbi Yehoshua and Nechama Wilansky of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Mrs. Raizel Raskin of Casablanca, Morocco. The bride’s maternal grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Raskin, of blessed memory, served as the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Morocco for more than 44 years until his passing in 2004.

The groom, known to family and friends as “Mendel,” is a second generation Michigander. His maternal grandparents, Rabbi Berel and Batsheva Shemtov, were appointed as the first Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries to Michigan in 1958. His parents, Rabbi Yossi and Raizel Shemtov, have served as leaders of the Chabad House of Toledo, Ohio. Mendel has served as head counselor at a boys’ summer camp in Lubavitch City, Michigan, and spent a summer in Texas setting up a new Chabad center there. Three of the groom’s great-grandparents spent time in Russian prisons, jailed for their involvement in promoting Jewish observance. His grandfather, Rabbi Mordechai Chein, was spirited out of Russia as a child while his father remained in prison. All four of the groom’s grandparents, Rabbi Berel and Batsheva Shemtov and Rabbi Mordechai and Brocha Chein, will be in attendance.