Erin Dana Leib, the daughter of Naomi R. Leib and Dr. Martin L. Leib of Riverdale, the Bronx, is to be married Sunday to Rabbi Daniel Jonathan Smokler, a son of Carol S. Smokler and Irving A. Smokler of Boca Raton, Fla. Rabbi Irving Greenberg will officiate at the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan.
The bride, 30, is a candidate for a Ph.D. in social thought at the University of Chicago. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. She teaches Jewish philosophy and studies the Talmud at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in Manhattan.
…Both the bride’s and the bridegroom’s previous marriages ended in divorce.
The couple’s paths first crossed in 1995 when they took part in Nesiya, a summer program in Israel, during high school.
“Dan was a rather charismatic hippie in his youth, meaning a cool, long-haired, spiritual guy,” Ms. Leib said.
Mr. Smokler, in turn, said he was “definitely intrigued by her, but our paths never crossed long enough.” After that summer Ms. Leib went back to New York and Mr. Smokler to Ann Arbor, yet they remained in contact and would often see one another a few times each year at Jewish events.