Bagels, lox and N.F.L. marathons — that’s how Elan David Cooperman grew up spending nearly every Sunday at his childhood home in Roslyn, N.Y.
“There’s nothing casual about watching football at my family’s house,” Mr. Cooperman said. And he knew when he met Sydney Marissa Berger in October 2018 that she would fit right in with his football-crazed family.
Ms. Berger and Mr. Cooperman, both 30, grew up sharing not only an almost religious fervor for sports, but also the faith they practiced. They attended Temple Beth Sholom in Roslyn since they were children, though they went to different high schools. But it wasn’t until 2015 that Ms. Berger, while home for Yom Kippur, first noticed Mr. Cooperman and his “electric smile” from across the temple.
It took another three years for Ms. Berger to “muster up the courage” to ask her best friend’s mother, a friend of the Cooperman family, to inquire if Mr. Cooperman was single. At the time, he was living in West Hartford, Conn., and she was on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Turns out, he was up for a date — if she didn’t mind the distance.
In October 2018, the two met for a first date at the now-closed Coffee Shop in Union Square. They bonded over their shared history and similar interests: Besides both growing up in Roslyn and attending the same temple, they were avid sports fans and — crucially — loved the New York Giants football team.
“As soon as we started talking, it was as if we had known each other forever,” Ms. Berger said.
But there was one discrepancy. Ms. Berger had grown up in a split household: Her mother rooted for the Yankees, while her father was a Mets fan. Out of loyalty to both parents, she had never picked a side. On their first date, Mr. Cooperman, a die-hard Mets fan, told Ms. Berger that “if this is going to go deep, you’re going to have to take a side.” She went all-in on the Mets.
It wasn’t the only team she fell for. In December 2018, Mr. Cooperman took Ms. Berger to her first New York Islanders game. At the time, she wasn’t a big ice hockey fan. But, after only one game, “I was hooked,” she said. “We have so much fun experiencing our teams together.”
[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]
Mr. Cooperman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His personal passion for sports is apparent in his career choice at Sorare, a fantasy sports cryptocurrency-based gaming company, where he works as a content program manager.
Ms. Berger graduated with a degree in public policy from the University of Michigan. She is a director of social media and communications at Thrive Global, a behavioral change technology company.
As the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020, the couple had been dating long-distance between Connecticut and New York City for more than a year when they moved into Ms. Berger’s parents’ basement in Roslyn. What they thought would be a three-week stay turned into a year. The couple even added a new member to the household: Jerry Garcia Berger Cooperman, a mini-Bernedoodle.
In August 2021, the couple (and Jerry) moved into an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where they still live. After a year spent “bonding” with Ms. Berger and her family, Mr. Cooperman said that he knew Ms. Berger was the one. So, he hatched a plan to propose.
“I told Sydney I was having a surprise birthday for my dad at the synagogue — where she saw me for the first time,” Mr. Cooperman said. When Ms. Berger arrived, the temple was filled with rose petals, 60 feet of string lights and pictures from their last few years together. On the stage was a sign that read “Marry Me?”
“A friend said he’d never heard of an engagement in a house of worship,” Ms. Berger said. For her, the engagement represented a “full circle.” They met and got engaged at the temple.
On June 18, the couple was married by Rabbi Alan Lucas, their childhood Rabbi, in front of 274 guests at the Liberty Warehouse, an event space in Brooklyn. “Being under the huppah with Elan is something I’ll never forget,” said Ms. Berger, who is taking her husband’s surname.
Toward the end of the night, the parents of Ms. Berger and Mr. Cooperman surprised the couple with two special guests joining the party: Mr. and Mrs. Met, the official mascots of the New York baseball team, strutting into the celebration. “When they came in our jaws dropped to the floor,” Mr. Cooperman said.
