Family of Jewish couple ‘flabbergasted’ by never-before-seen weddings pictures

The family of a Jewish couple were “flabbergasted” after never-before-seen pictures of their wedding appeared in the Jewish News over 60 years after the ceremony.

A letter writer, whose grandfather Victor Sassoon captured the bride and groom on their big day, appealed to Jewish News readers to identify the lucky couple last month.

Recognising the pair as Harry and Vivienne Lauer, a letter writer contacted the Jewish News and got in touch with the pictured mum-of-two, who is now based in Israel. 

The couple, who married in Leeds in 1956, retired to Netanya in Israel in 1987, where Harry passed away in 1993.

Their son Gary Lauer, from Hendon, saved the Jewish News issue on his computer for safekeeping and is deciding whether to frame it.

“My mother and other members of my family were all flabbergasted and thrilled,” the IT programme and project consultant said on Thursday.

“It was lovely to see my mum in a wedding dress, quite gorgeous, and I hadn’t realised that my late father wore a top hat at the wedding, and I’m told that was the norm in those days,” he said.

Sassoon was an amateur photographer and a friend of the family.