Rabbi Susan Shamash is a progressive, independent Rabbi based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was ordained by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, which embraces a contemporary egalitarian Judaism as a profound spiritual practice and social transformer, reaching beyond religious boundaries and institutional structures. She is passionate about "open tent" Judaism and, in her service to interfaith families, she occupies a unique niche in metropolitan Vancouver.
Services offered
She offers inclusive and personalized services to celebrate your relationship and provide innovative life cycle event officiation, including interfaith, same-sex, and gender queer events. She doesn't just "show up" for your wedding. Her fee includes three in-person meetings (2-3 hours each) for informal counseling on:
Why a Jewish wedding (or why do you want to be married by a rabbi)?
Your families of origin
Love and marriage from a Jewish perspective
Yours, mine and ours
Co-creating your personalized Jewish wedding ritual
How she works
She works together with your ideas, dream, beliefs, values, personalities and the Jewish tradition to create the wedding ceremony you envision. She dedicates a minimum of 10 hours to preparing for your unique ceremony. Her fee also includes the Ketubah signing ritual and a venue assessment. Because of the simplicity of the Jewish wedding, it is not her custom to lead a rehearsal.
Rabbi Susan was a pure delight to work with - if you call it "work" to join in creating the most meaningful personal ceremony we could imagine!!! From the outset, she set such a helpful structure to get to know us- we met several times and had introspective conversations + exercises about what makes us "us." It not only felt therapeutic but was helpful fodder for creating out vows and intention at the ceremony! She opened up about her passion about interfaith connection, and we felt that she really "got us."
On the day, she was enthusiastic to partake, and brought authentic, grounded, playful, joyous energy. Thats a tough balance to strike and she hit it marvellously. She added so much to our ceremony and we highly recommend going with Rabbi Susan for your Jewish or interfaith wedding ceremony!!!
Sent on 02/07/2019
Rabbi Susan Shamash's reply:
Thank you Naomi for such a wonderful "review". It was a joy and a privilege to meet and "work" with you and Kristoff and to co-create such a beautiful and meaningful wedding ceremony. You are an amazing couple, so much in love. The personal words of intention and commitment you spoke to each other brought tears to my eyes. I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity it/you gave me.
Hailey Fugman
· Married on 29 of August of 2019
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Great experience
Rabbi Susan officiated our wedding. She was amazing and adapted her process to fit mine and my husbands busy schedule and specific needs. It was a great experience, I would highly recommend her
Sent on 22/09/2019
Rabbi Susan Shamash's reply:
Thank you for your lovely review Hailey. You and David knew exactly what you wanted in your ceremony and were incredibly focused and efficient. It was a privilege, an honour and a privilege to co-create your wedding ceremony with the two of you and to be your officiant.
Carolina Heimann
· Married on 21 of July of 2019
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
The most amazing officiant
Rabbi Susan was an absolute pleasure to work with. From the initial introductory meeting she made us feel welcome. We worked with her for over a year, even being invited over for dinners in which she introduced us to other couples like us (interfaith). The service itself was beautiful - very personalized to what we requested, and everyone had the best feedback to say about it. Overall, would highly recommend.
Sent on 01/08/2019
Rabbi Susan Shamash's reply:
Caro and George you are, in many ways, my “ideal couple”. Your love for and commitment to each other is awesome and your willingness to work deeply with me was inspiring. You knew exactly what you wanted and never for a moment forgot exactly who the ceremony was for (the two of you). It was a pleasure and a privilege to be your wedding officiant and I look forward to being your rabbi for many years to come.
Paul Starr
· Married on 17 of August of 2019
4.4
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
4.0
Value:
4.0
Flexibility:
4.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Pete and Ofir's garden wedding
Susan collaborated with Andrew Twiddy, rector of St Anne’s and St. Edmund’s in Parksville, to develop an ecumenical service that spanned two religions and which appealed strongly to the mainly non-religious guests. The service showcased the love that the two grooms shared and reflected their respective values and traditions. We were very pleased with Susan and Andrew’s efforts and felt that they had provided everything we could have wanted.
Sent on 30/08/2019
Rabbi Susan Shamash's reply:
Paul, as the father of one of the grooms, your opinion is very important to me. It was such a pleasure for me to work with and come to know Peter and Ofir and to collaborate with Pastor Andrew in a deep and authentic way. And also to meet your family and close friends. I felt truly blessed to enable the wedding of such a remarkable couple. Peter and Ofir will be forever in my heart.
Jack Huberman and Gordon Boyd
· Married on 01 of June of 2019
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Wonderful!!!
From the moment we first met Rabbi Susan, we both felt very comfortable with her and that continued through to the very end of the wedding ceremony. She was helpful, friendly, accommodating and a joy to work with throughout the entire process. She helped us bring together the best of both of our traditions given that we weren’t of the same faith. She helped us create a very meaningful ceremony that worked for both of us. She was both traditional in orientation yet open to all kinds of new, creative and modern ideas for our ceremony.
One of our friends wrote to us after the wedding saying that it was the most magical that they had ever attended. Much of the credit for the beauty of the ceremony goes to Rabbi Susan and we will be eternally grateful to her for making it that way.
Sent on 22/06/2019
Rabbi Susan Shamash's reply:
Jack and Gord, thank you for this beautiful and heartfelt review. It was an honour and a privilege, not to mention a lot of fun, to co-create and officiate at your deep, unique and magical wedding ceremony You are a very special couple!
