Dear God, I’m Ready To Meet The One

by Holly Lebowitz Rossi

In the Jewish community, interfaith marriage has long been regarded as a dangerous scourge, one that threatens the very survival of the Jewish people. Given that dating Jews is the first step toward marrying Jews, some synagogues are literally investing in ways to make that happen.

In October of 2007, Rabbi Donald Weber of Temple Rodef Torah in Marlboro, NJ made a surprising announcement from the pulpit: any member of his congregation who wanted to join JDate, the popular Jewish online dating service, could do so free of charge: The synagogue would pick up the tab. According to Gail Laguna, a spokesperson for JDate, five other synagogues have followed Weber’s example, resulting in at least 120 new JDate subscriptions.

But many singles, particularly Jews, are not members of a congregation or regular participants in religious services. That will come later, they say, when they’ve met their spouse and are ready to enroll their kids in Hebrew school.

So a number of organizations, from Boston’s popular annual Matzah Ball party, held on Christmas Eve, to the group, Gesher City, which hosts everything from events with the creators of He-Brew beer to community service projects to roller skating parties and cooking classes in 13 cities from Houston to Washington, DC, are stepping into the breach.

The idea is that people walk in the door already having their religious backgrounds in common, and they’re there to do something together—something that’s neither overtly dating-oriented nor overtly religious.