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Dayan Surprise Wedding – Neighbors Recruited for Minyan

June 28, 1973
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Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was married last night to Mrs. Rachel Korem in a simple ceremony performed by Rabbi Mordechai Piron, Chief Chaplain of Israel’s armed forces, at the rabbi’s home here. It was the second marriage for both.

The wedding was not announced beforehand and Rabbi Piron, who holds the rank of Brig. Gen., had to recruit neighbors to complete the ten-man minyan (quorum) required for a religious ceremony. Neither Gen. Dayan’s daughter and two sons nor Mrs. Korem’s two daughters attended.

The ceremony lasted 45 minutes. Afterwards, the rabbi’s wife served refreshments and Gen. Dayan and his bride left for a private dinner with friends at a local restaurant. Dayan was at his desk in his office this morning as usual.

The 57-year-old Defense Minister was divorced from his first wife, Ruth Dayan, in Jan. 1972. Mrs. Korem, 45, who once was on the staff of Premier David Ben-Gurion, was divorced ten years ago. After the ceremony, Gen. Dayan told well-wishers that he had no trouble getting a marriage license. “She is divorced and I am divorced. I am no Cohen and no mamzer (bastard) so there was no trouble,” he said in a humorous reference to restrictions imposed by Israel’s Orthodox rabbinate.

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