His knowledge of Hebrew at his 20-hour-long filibuster this March may have confused you, but Cory Booker isn’t Jewish.
“I am not Jewish, but my name is Booker, so I always say I am meshuga Booker,” he joked during that long speech.
Still, the politician just broke the glass at his wedding last week to the tune of Mariah Carey’s “Emotions” — which, to be honest, I wish had been the soundtrack to my wedding ceremony.
The song choice was particularly sweet because he proposed to his Jewish bride, Alexis Lewis — now Alexis Booker — to the tune of the diva, who, fun fact, sings a mean Hanukkah tune. The couple was on vacation in Hawaii when a native band hotel started playing “Dreamlover,” one of Lewis’ childhood favorites. She hugged the musicians and told them it was a tune that she wanted to play at her wedding. That’s when, according to the New York Times, Booker got down on one knee to pop the question.
The couple got married in two different ceremonies this November.
One ceremony took place ahead of Thanksgiving at a courthouse in New Jersey, where Cory Booker was raised, served as mayor of Newark and serves now as a Senator. He got noshes for the civil ceremony from Calandra’s in Newark and Papa Ganache Project in Matawan.
A grander, but still intimate, wedding took place in Washington, D.C. this past Saturday, Nov. 30. Lewis, director of investments at a real estate investment firm in Los Angeles, was born and raised in D.C. At the wedding, Lewis wore a beautiful lacy dress designed by Jewish father-daughter duo Gilles and Chloe Mendel of House of Gilles.
The small interfaith family ceremony was led by Booker’s longtime reverend, Dr. David Jefferson, Sr. Esq., from Newark Metropolitan Baptist Church, and his close friend, Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz of Short Hills’ Temple B’nai Jeshurun. The ceremony took place under a chuppah made out of pictures of lost loved ones, including Booker’s father, who didn’t live to see him married.
“Early in our relationship, I had a bittersweet moment of grief realizing my father would never get to meet the woman I’m marrying,” Booker said. “But Alexis is exactly the kind of woman my dad would have wanted for me. I often joke with her that she and my father have so much in common, and that he must be smiling — and laughing — in heaven.”
The couple started dating in May of last year thanks to a matchmaking friend. Their first date was five hours long, and their second included a musical from a Jewish great, Shaina Taub — “Suffs” — a very good foundation to a lifelong relationship, I think.
Speaking of the future, the politician has spoken in the past about his wish to start a family, and Booker and Lewis’ future children will be raised in an interfaith household.
We’re so thrilled for him and his new wife. A hearty mazel tov to both of them — we’re kvelling!
Editor’s note 12/4/25: This piece originally misnamed the rabbi of Temple B’nai Jeshurun as Rabbi Mark D. Gewirtz. It has been updated to reflect his correct name, Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz.
