How Noa met David

By LEAH HAKIMIAN
Updated: JULY 17, 2018 07:15
He’s a proper Londoner who married his American girlfriend. Like Harry and Meghan, David and Noa also married in May 2018. What advice does David have for Prince Harry? “Just make it work.”
David Brummer met Noa Amouyal when he joined the staff of The Jerusalem Post (Jpost) in 2014 as a reporter and sub-editor. “We were friendly, but not close in any way,” remarks Noa, who is currently the senior features editor. “It can be awkward to date a colleague working at the same paper.”
About a year later, David left the Jpost. “When I came to Noa’s home for a New Year’s Eve party on December 31, 2016, I realized that everything had changed,” smiles David, who was then 38.
Noa, then 32, recalls: “I made a new sangria which turned out to be extremely potent and I basically poisoned everyone at the party, myself included, but not David. He came late to the party because he had been playing soccer. When the other guests left and I was in bad shape, David helped me clean up. The next morning he offered to make me soup. We’ve been together every day since then.”
The Washington Post reported in 2016: “It’s pretty common for journalists to date and marry other journalists…It helps relationships when your jobs are similar. You understand the schedules, the demands, and challenges.”
Business Insider notes that “creatives love creatives.” David, currently the managing editor of Israel365, agrees. “There is never a dull moment with Noa.”
“I like the fact that David is very stable,” reveals Noa. “If he says, we’re going to meet on a certain day, he’s there. No showing up late.”
She continues: “We don’t really have many of the same interests. But it’s not a source of conflict.” David loves sports, enjoys cooking and is keen on archaeology and history books. The dating website, eharmony, confirms that “shared interests are not usually enough to ensure a lasting relationship.”
They come from different backgrounds. Noa was born in Israel, raised in Maryland, and received a B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2006 with a major in English Language and Literature. After she made aliya, she earned an M.A. in Political Science and Government from Tel Aviv University. She confesses: “When I’m in Israel, I feel American; and when I’m in America, I feel Israeli.”
David was born and raised in London, graduated from Leeds Beckett University with a degree in History and Politics and received his M.A. in Modern History from University College London in 2002. He made aliya when he was 28.
“I don’t think there’s much cultural difference between us, but there is a big gap religiously,” says Noa. “Still, we came to some sort of understanding and don’t expect to change the other person. Basically, we are respectful of each other.” David summarizes: “I found someone I love and who loves me. We just make it work.”
David began thinking about marriage about a year after “the fateful sangria” and asked permission from Noa’s dad. In January 2018, he proposed with a ring that had belonged to his grandmother.
Rabbi David Rosen, International Director of Interreligious Affairs, American Jewish Committee, officiated at their wedding. Noa was impressed when she met him: “He was the first person who didn’t think it was strange and incongruous that a secular person could be with a religious person.”
Surrounded by friends and family, who included secular and religious Brits, Americans and Israelis, Noa and David were married on May 29, 2018 in Jaffa, Israel. Mazal tov.
Photo credit: Jonny Finkel