They United Their Muslim and Jewish Families but Didn’t Stop There

Under a huppah in a cornfield in Glenwood, Iowa, Sammi Rose Cannold and Safiullah Rauf took turns reading excerpts from a notebook that she had written in nearly every day for several months.

“Day 32 of captivity. I dream of the day that I get to read this sentence back to myself, while sitting next to you on a porch somewhere, or something stupid like that,” Mr. Rauf read from Ms. Cannold’s notebook. “But today’s the first time since this started that I have fully doubted if that day will come.”

In December 2021, two months after becoming a couple, Mr. Rauf, an Afghan American humanitarian who goes by Safi, was taken hostage by the Taliban. Ms. Cannold wasn’t sure she would ever see him again.

Even better than sitting on a porch, on July 20, Mr. Rauf recited that sentence as they were married in front of 300 guests. His father, an imam, had led them through the nikah, the Muslim marriage ceremony. Ms. Cannold’s 98-year-old Jewish grandmother read a variation of the seven blessings in Hebrew and English.

Mr. Rauf was dressed in a sherwani, and Ms. Cannold wore a lehenga — outfits they had purchased on a recent trip to India while working on the first film for their production company, Beyond the Barricade, which aims to produce work that builds bridges between Jewish and Muslim communities.

Truthfully, the two, both 30, feared they would not be able to end up together. “We had both been taught in life, not by anyone in particular, but by society, that the two of us aren’t really supposed to be together,” said Ms. Cannold, a Jewish Broadway director who grew up in Armonk, N.Y. Mr. Rauf, a Muslim refugee who grew up in a camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, relocated to Omaha at age 17.