Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Booker marries Jewish woman in interfaith ceremony

The New Jersey senator stepped on a glass as the song “Emotions,” by Mariah Carey played, during his interfaith ceremony with Alexis Lewis.

Cory Booker
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) speaks at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention, held at the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, June 1, 2019. Credit: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) married Alexis Lewis, who is Jewish, in an interfaith ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 29, three months after announcing their engagement.

Booker’s longtime friend, Rabbi Matthew Gewirtz, and his pastor, Rev. David Jefferson Sr., performed the ceremony together under a chuppah.

Gewirtz, the rabbi of Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, N.J., is a founding executive committee member of the Newark Coalition for Hope and Peace. He served for four years as president of the Coalition of Religious Leaders for the state of New Jersey.

From Washington, D.C., Lewis is director of investments at Brasa Capital Management. She previously worked in economic policy for Eric Garcetti, the former mayor of Los Angeles. The 38-year-old met Booker, 56, in May 2024 after a mutual friend arranged a blind date.

The chuppah was adorned with photographs of loved ones who have died. Booker stepped on a glass under the chuppah, a traditional Jewish wedding custom, to the Mariah Carey song “Emotions.”

The American Jewish Committee shared its well-wishes with the couple on social media: “Mazal tov to Sen. Booker and Alexis Lewis on their marriage,” it wrote. “Wishing them a lifetime of joy, love and blessings.”

Booker and Lewis were legally married at the U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., on Nov. 24, with their parents in attendance as witnesses.

It’s “absurd and tragic that there are U.N. experts who are supposed to care about the rights of women, especially to combat sexual violence, and she’s one of the world’s major deniers of sexual violence against Israeli women,” Hillel Neuer told JNS.
“We’re going to keep pushing, and we’ll get there,” Rabbi Josh Joseph told JNS. “We’ll get to the $1 billion that we need.”
“We don’t need it. We need to teach real, honest history,” Sonja Shaw, school board president of Chino Valley Unified School District, told JNS.
The Israeli ambassador accused Vanessa Frazier, the U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, of amplifying antisemitic content and unverified claims about Israel, and called for a review of her continued suitability for office.
A federal judge found that efforts to remove Hassan Suleiman Khalaf to Gaza or an Arab village in Judea and Samaria via Israel remain viable.
Speaking to local authority leaders, the Israeli premier said bold military decisions changed the regional balance of power and averted existential threats.
Benny Gantz, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan S. Tobin, Gilad Erdan, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Nissim Black and leading voices in security, diplomacy, media, law and Jewish communal affairs headline the summit’s third day in Jerusalem.