Why ZIVUG?
Rabbi Getzel Davis (he/him) founded ZIVUG on a simple idea: If you take a portion of the time that you will spend on wedding planning to envision your marriage, you are more likely to have a longer and healthier partnership. When many ZIVUG couples became parents, he founded the ZIVUG parents' groups - helping new Mamas, Papas, Imas, and Tattis envision their new roles as the parents of Jewish children. In addition to his work with couples in partnership, Rabbi Getzel has years of experience providing spiritual counseling for individuals, now under the ZIVUG umbrella of pastoral care services.
Our Story
Rabbi Getzel Davis, a rabbi and chaplain at Harvard University, first founded Unorthodox Celebrations to help Jews (and those who love them) find inspiring and reliable officiants for the life cycle needs. Since 2016, Unorthodox Celebrations has helped almost a thousand couples find the right fit for their family’s weddings, bnei mitzvah, and baby namings.
In working with these couples, Rabbi Getzel found that families transitioning to marriage and parenthood were eager to reflect together with other couples on relationship skills, Jewish wisdom around marriage, and making friends during this stage of life. These groups have met around Boston since 2019 and recently moved online in light of the coronavirus.
Rabbi Getzel has undergone training in couples and family counseling at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and is a certified trainer in Prepare-Enrich premarital counseling. Using both secular and Jewish approaches, he helps couples discover their own path together.
Rabbi Getzel also works 1:1 with individuals as a mashpi’ah (spiritual counselor) and with individual couples as they move through life’s challenges, especially during life cycle transitions.
About Rabbi Getzel Davis
Rabbi Getzel (he/him) is trying to answer this question: How do we live meaningful and ethical lives in this post-modern, high-stress, computerized world? While he hasn’t yet resolved the question, many of the clues he has found are in gems of ancient Jewish wisdom. Rabbi Getzel received his Bachelor’s Degree from Brandeis University and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbinical School of Hebrew College where he also received a Masters in Jewish Education. Rabbi Getzel works as a rabbi and educator at Harvard Hillel and also as an Harvard University Chaplain, where much of his work is to engage unobservant students. He is also the adviser for the Conservative Minyan, teaches regular classes, and counsels students, faculty, and community members.
Rabbi Getzel is also the founder and executive director of Unorthodox Celebrations, a service that connects unaffiliated Jews with inspiring rabbis and cantors nationwide to facilitate meaningful weddings, bar mitzvahs and baby namings. He is also a contributing blogger at the Huffington Post and received an honorable mention in Newsweek's Top 50 Rabbis of 2015 for leading Yom Kippur Services at Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park. He recently was honored by the Combined Jewish Philanthropy’s Chai in the Hub award for his work with Unorthodox Celebrations.