Yesterday we blogged about how Pittsburgh’s Congregation Beth Shalom is offering a year of free school and membership for area families. Today we want to focus Sixth & I, a historic synagogue in downtown Washington, DC.

The synagogue is promoting a “Wedding Giveaway,” where people can submit a 30 second video explaining why they want to get married at Sixth & I. The winning couple will receive a wedding package valued at $3,500. The goal is to provide “the experience of a lifetime while not requiring a lifetime worth of savings to accomplish it.”

Additionally, the contest is open to everyone in the Jewish community – they don’t have to be members of Sixth & I, or even affiliated. “No matter how you are paired up, no matter your level of observance,” they write in the promotional material, everyone is eligible to enter. In the rules and regulations, they state quite clearly, “Sixth & I warmly welcomes interfaith couples and same-sex couples.”

This is a pretty smart marketing strategy for the synagogue. Offering to host a Jewish lifecycle event free of charge will certainly earn Sixth & I some great publicity. But there are a few more added benefits. First, this will certainly attract many of the unaffiliated couples in the area who are looking for a Jewish home. This kind of an opportunity will essentially force these folks to explain why Judaism matters, and why they want to be married in a synagogue. It will hopefully lead them on a path to increased Jewish participation.

And second, promoting it as an event open to all sends the right message: Sixth & I wants everyone – in the mainstream and on the margins – to feel included and welcome in the Jewish community.