They’re wedded to the idea of helping the less fortunate
SIMON MURRAY proposed to his girlfriend Julie Gubbay on Saturday night, so they could celebrate their first day engaged giving back to others. For Ms Gubbay and Mr Murray — who runs regular events for Holocaust survivors including one each Mitzvah Day —it was love at second sight.
“We went on a date [two years ago] but it didn’t happen,” recalled Ms Gubbay, 31, who works as a sales executive. “I’m not sure why but we didn’t pursue it.”
When a mutual friend tried to persuade her to give Mr Murray another chance, she wasn’t keen.
“I thought ‘if it didn’t happen then, why is it going to happen now’? But it did and ever since we have been inseparable.”
Brand manager Mr Murray, 33, wanted to coincide the proposal with Mitzvah Day as “volunteering is a really important part of my life.
“It was a great way to start off the engagement. The survivors were really excited for us. They were giving us relationship advice, like ‘listen to the woman; she is always right’. It was nice for them to see Jewish life continuing and it made them happy to see us happy.”
Ms Gubbay had an inkling a proposal was afoot. “My friends thought he might propose that night because we were going for dinner to the restaurant we had our first date in [the second time around],” she said.
“I was also suspicious because when I walked into the restaurant, I bumped into him and he had a big bag.
“We had our meal and were talking about our day when the waitress came over and said she had a very special desert for me.
“It was covered with a napkin and when she took it off there was a lightup box that said: ‘Will you marry me?’
“Simon dropped to his knees and put the ring on the wrong finger. But of course I said yes.
“We want to get married in Israel next year. But for now we will enjoy the engagement.
“They fact it was part of Mitzvah Day is really important to both of us and was the perfect way to celebrate.”