Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Bride’s brother brings a llama to wedding wearing a tuxedo, kippah

Mendl Weinstock followed through with the help of Shocky the llama

(JTA) — A Jewish man from Cleveland, Ohio, brought a llama wearing a tuxedo and a kippah to his sister’s wedding, following through on a 5-year-old vow.

Mendl Weinstock arrived with Shocky the llama, which he rented from a llama farm, on Sunday to the wedding of his older sister Riva.

Mendl told Riva five years ago, when she wasn’t even dating, that he would bring a llama to her wedding to tease her over how often she spoke about getting married, he told Insider in an interview for an article that was published Tuesday.

“She tried to use reverse psychology on me and said, ‘OK, the llama is invited to the wedding,’” he said.

Riva was engaged in October, and Mendl told her that he intends to hold her to her words.

And he made sure she remembered.

“He has been torturing me with this, in good fun, and has been reminding me of this probably twice a week for the last five years,” Riva told Insider. “I have tried striking so many deals, I have tried doing literally everything possible to make sure it didn’t happen, and lo and behold, there was a llama at my wedding.”

Mendl had the tuxedo and kippah specially made for his guest.

A photo of brother and sister near the animal shows Mendl smiling in Riva’s direction while placing his left hand on the llama. Riva looks at him angrily. The llama is the only subject facing the camera.

The photo received more than 156,000 interactions on Reddit and attracted more than 3,600 comments.

The post This brother vowed he would bring a llama to his sister’s wedding. And he did — wearing a tuxedo and kippah. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version