On Valentine's Day 1999, Carol Moore and Judith Klein celebrated their six-year relationship in a commitment ceremony jointly officiated by a rabbi and a personal friend at a downtown Chicago synagogue. The ceremony contained many elements of a traditional Jewish wedding, but the ritual was also crafted to reflect the specific characteristics of the couple being united: same-sex, interfaith and feminist. Near the end of the ceremony, the rabbi invited ceremony guests to sign the couple's ketubah (Jewish wedding contract), which he called “a document which has far greater authority than any legal instrument,” and noted that Carol and Judith had taken each other as spouses “not yet in accordance with the laws of this state, but according to a much higher authority, the loving and justice-proclaiming law of the living God.” The ketubah listed several promises of mutual love and support and asserted the status of their commitment as a marriage, stating: “We make these promises intending our relationship to be treated as a marriage by ourselves and by all those we meet. This ketubah is evidence of our commitment to one another and should be construed by any government, court or public official as if the laws governing married persons applied to our relationship.”