I Do!: Lyle Rothman and Sam Dubin

When Lyle Rothman and Sam Dubin met on the Bumble dating app three years ago, their courtship went from virtual chats to meeting the parents within the span of a week.

Rothman, a former Hofstra Hillel rabbi who at the time was the Jewish chaplain at the University of Miami Hillel, connected with Dubin at a wedding he was officiating in Detroit, Dubin’s hometown.

“We both swiped right,” Dubin, 32, said of their connection in August 2021. After Rothman flew back to Miami, their romance quickly escalated from texting to what Dubin called “the best two-hour Facetime, ever,” to an invitation back to Detroit the next weekend.

As soon as Dubin picked Rothman up at the airport, they were inseparable, they said. They toured Metro Detroit, had their first kiss and ate Sunday brunch together. Then, with preparation for the upcoming Jewish High Holidays in September requiring Rothman’s return to Miami, they took a bold step for a brand-new couple.

“I met his parents,” Rothman, 42, said of a quickly arranged introduction to his future mother- and father-in-law at the Dubin family lake house. They approved the match, the couple said.

On March 17, 2023, it was at the lake house where Rothman got down on one knee and proposed.

And on July 4, Dubin, now the Jewish community affairs manager for the Jewish Community Relations Council-Long Island, and Rothman wed at The Community Synagogue in Port Washington, a Reform congregation where Rothman is now an associate rabbi.

The ceremony included a special show of support for the couple: About 25 of Rothman’s rabbinical colleagues, some of whom “likely wouldn’t officiate at a gay wedding,” offered the couple “priestly blessings,” Rothman said. “So it was very unique and meaningful.”