Just Married! Wedding Stories from Jewish Maryland
Meet the Klavans
Rose Schuchman and Rev. Morris Klavan were married on December 1st, 1940, at the Community Hall on Liberty Heights Avenue, Baltimore by Morris’s brother Rabbi Israel Klavan.
Family stories about the first meeting between Morris, a cantor working in Durham, North Carolina, and Rose, daughter of grocery store owners in Baltimore, are many and varied.
One version says that a relative decided the pair would suit, so the Schuchman family cooked up a scheme to send Rose with a deli order that she needed to deliver in person… all the way to her cousins in Durham. An ‘accidental’ meeting could then be conveniently arranged.
Morris had been living with the Zuckerman family in North Carolina; when the couple got engaged, Solomon Zuckerman, a tailor, made Morris’s wedding tuxedo. Through it all, their family and friends stayed involved; in fact; the officiant was Morris’s brother.
Wedding portrait of Rose Schuchman and Morris Klavan, Baltimore, December 1, 1940.
Gift of Joyce Klavan Jandorf, CP 55.2016.1.
Wedding gown, ivory satin brocade, either handmade or purchased at Schleisner’s, Baltimore.
Tuxedo, wool with satin lapels, handmade by Solomon Zuckerman of Durham, North Carolina.
Gift of Joyce Klavan Jandorf. JMM 2016.36.1-.2.
WEDDINGS: Klavan – Schuchman
The marriage of Miss Rose Schuchman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schuchman, to Rev. Morris Klavan, son of Rabbi and Mrs. Joshua Klavan of Washington, DC, was solemnized Sunday, December 1, at Community Hall.
The ceremony was performed by Rabbi Klavan of Fitchburg, Mass., brother of the groom. Rabbi Williamofsky of Washington, DC; Rabbi Schwab and Rabbi Friedlander of Baltimore also officiated.
The bride was dressed in ivory brocaded satin and carried roses and lilies of the valley. Mrs. S. Schuchman, sister-in-law of the bride, was matron of honor; Miss Ann Gresser, maid of honor, and the Misses Bernice Freiberg and Dorothy Wolock, usherettes. Little Chana Yoffee was flower girl.
Rabbi Israel Klavan acted as his brother’s best man. The ushers were the Messrs. Samuel Schuchman, Reuben Yoffee, Harry S. Klavan, Hillard Klavan, Bennett Klavan, Louis Gevantman, Dave Berman and Sidney Weinsten.
Rev. and Mrs. Morris Klavan are living in Durham, NC.
-The Baltimore Jewish Times, January 3, 1941