Going for Guinness: Israeli Claims ‘Smallest Wedding Proposal’ Ever
It was a marriage proposal for the record books — or at least that’s what the engaged couple is hoping.
An Israeli physics student is seeking a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records after popping the question to his girlfriend, in what the pair claim is the “smallest wedding proposal” in history.
Rather than a champagne dinner or a diamond ring, 25-year-old Elad Dekel asked for his girlfriend’s hand in marriage with a tiny silicone chip, on which he’d inscribed the fateful question alongside an image of the couple. Plated in silicon and gold, the chip measures 1 square centimeter and had to be viewed under a microscope before Dekel’s girlfriend, Chen Mendelowitz, realized what she was seeing.
Dekel, a physics student at the Israel Institute of Technology, created the chip while working at a nanotechnology research center during an exchange program in Dresden, Germany. He presented the chip to Mendelowitz while leading her on a tour of the facility.
Mendelowitz told Israel’s Ynetnews Web site that she felt a “hot flash” of excitement after reading the marriage proposal — but said it was so tiny she didn’t immediately realize what it was. “I looked for quite a while,” she said, “zooming in and out, magnifying the image, and finally detected a weird shape. I magnified it and slowly began to realize it was a photo of the both of us. I magnified it more and saw there was something written, and then I realized it said, ‘Chen, will you marry me? Elad.’ “
The couple is now preparing for the wedding back in Israel.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!