From the moment they met at the Masa Israel Teaching Fellows program in Tel Aviv, Rachel Sasiene and Harris Blum became inseparable. Together, they explored Tel Aviv and other parts of Israel, and took trips to Greece and Italy during their breaks. On Friday nights, they’d go to Harris’ cousin’s home for Shabbat dinner and enjoy the time with family and friends.
“I remember being charmed by [Blum’s] intelligence, and we had great conversations,” said Sasiene. “But I also remember thinking that getting involved with someone else on the program was not the best idea, in case things went south. He’ll tell you I friended him on Facebook at 2 a.m. that next morning, but I have no recollection of that!”
As their Masa program came to a close, Sasiene and Blum, who started dating in October of 2018, knew that they were each other’s besherts. They moved to Miami together, where he enrolled in law school and she led the Israel engagement program at the University of Miami Hillel.
Now, they are living in Sasiene’s hometown of Houston, Texas with their dog Pita, named in celebration of how they met, and this past January, they got engaged.
The timing came as a surprise. They’d spent Hanukkah and the New Year in Philadelphia with Blum’s grandmother, who, as a baby, escaped Germany on the last ship out before Kristallnacht. They found out she’d been diagnosed with cancer, and they wanted to be with her and the rest of his family.
“I was absolutely shocked when a family trip to Florida for his grandmother’s birthday was our surprise engagement.“
“Harris and I had gone to pick out rings, but he had told me we wouldn’t get engaged until after he got a job and we moved,” Sasiene said. “I was absolutely shocked when a family trip to Florida for his grandmother’s birthday was our surprise engagement. In three weeks’ time, he organized the entire thing, with both of our families in attendance. He really thought I knew, but when I insisted on working out that morning and not washing my hair, he knew I was in the dark.”
Now, the couple is planning their wedding and putting down roots in Houston, where they are going to stay for the long term.
“Harris and I are excited to build a life in Houston together,” Sasiene said. “The Jewish community is something we have both benefited from in a myriad of ways throughout our lives.”
The two plan to travel to Israel soon; Blum is going back for the first time since MITF ended, while Sasiene travels there twice a year for her job as Hillel International’s Senior Manager, Israel Action & Addressing Antisemitism.
For the couple, Judaism and Israel are at the core of their being.
“Israel is currently a daily topic of conversation for us, and I imagine it will continue this way,” Sasiene said. “If we start a family of our own Jewish practice, the importance of Jewish peoplehood and Zionism will be among the many values of our home.”
Looking forward, Sasiene and Blum hope to do big things, making the world a better place through their respective careers and spreading their love of Israel.
“We both have big career goals in the legal and Jewish communities respectively,” Sasiene said. “We support each other’s dreams and hope to each make an impact in our community and fields of work. We envision a thriving Jewish and Zionist future, and know there’s a lot of work to be done to secure that for the next generation.”
