By Martha Moody Jacobs, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

When Jill Abromowitz and Brent Gutmann marry in June at the Schuster Center, it will be the result of a romance spanning three continents, thousands of miles, and multiple time zones.

Still, the two met in a homey way. “Jill’s father did my little brother Derek’s bris,” Brent says. Growing up, Brent and Jill saw each other often, because their parents — Bev and Jay Gutmann, and Dr. Howard and Judy Abromowitz — were friends.

Brent paid more attention to Jill’s three brothers than to Jill, and Jill was friendly mostly with Mandy, Brent’s little sister. Things changed while the two were in college. Brent is six months older than Jill, and one year ahead in school.

He went to Indiana University, while Jill headed to western Massachusetts and Smith College.

In 2004, Jill had an internship in India for the summer, then returned to Dayton for 10 days.

She and Brent spent time together before she headed off to Prague for a semester of study. The two started e-mailing. They saw each other on winter and spring break. Phone calls supplemented their e-mails.

In 2006, Jill graduated summa cum laude from Smith and headed off to South Korea on a Fulbright scholarship.

Before leaving, she had a party at which she cooked food from all the countries she’d visited; Brent’s family was there.

On winter break, Jill and Brent met in Dayton again. The phone calls accelerated. “It started one time a day, then two times a day,” Jill says.

In the meantime, Brent, after graduating from IU, was working in Chicago and applying to rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

When Jill started a job in New York in the summer of 2007, she thought, “We’re dating each other, but we haven’t seen each other in six months.”

The two made frequent visits between their cities until Jill quit her job and moved to Chicago.

But things weren’t simple: Jill hated the Chicago winter and was offered a dream position in health care policy research in Washington, D.C.

She moved there. Brent followed. They had five good months together and got engaged on a Mexican cruise with Jill’s family.

In July 2008, Brent, now a rabbinical student, moved to Jerusalem for his first year of studies. Jill will join him there in early 2009, working for five months with the Israeli Ministry of Public Health.

Already fluent in French, Russian, Korean, and Czech, she is now studying Hebrew.

“I’m more Type B,” Brent says, comparing himself to his fiancée. “She keeps me busy and organized and I help her relax and enjoy life.”

Brent says they just “get” each other. He recalls a time when they were both in the kitchen making separate dishes. Brent took out some garlic, pressed it, and handed it to Jill. Jill was grateful but shocked: how had Brent known she’d need garlic at that moment? “I just knew,” Brent says.

As to their wedding, Brent admits he’s not obsessed with the details. “I went to the cake-tasting,” he says.

Jill, living and working in Washington and Israel, doesn’t have the time to do what needs to be done in Dayton.

“My lovely mother’s planning it,” Jill says of the wedding. “She has impeccable taste.”

Jill’s family belongs to Beth Jacob Synagogue in Harrison Township; Brent’s family belongs to Temple Beth Or in Washington Township. Officiating at the Schuster Center will be Rabbi Hillel Fox of Beth Jacob and Rabbi Judy Chessin of Beth Or.

Jill and Brent’s plans immediately after their wedding are unclear, but autumn will find them both in Cincinnati, where Brent starts his second of five years in rabbinical school.

The two had hoped for a placement at Hebrew Union’s New York campus, but, as Brent says, “our families are so happy we’ll be close that it makes us feel good. It’ll just be nice to be together.”