Arielle and Josh Hay of Riverdale, New York
Today, it seems everyone knows someone who met their significant other on JDate. What started in 1997 as a divorced, middle-aged businessman’s attempt to attract a Jewish wife, has grown exponentially across the globe, now connecting more than 750,000 Jews worldwide in search of love. JDate’s mission statement is “to strengthen the Jewish community and ensure that Jewish traditions are sustained for generations to come” and, placed in the context of the rising tide of interfaith marriage, JDate has become an undeniable force in helping Jews meet other Jews and building Jewish families. In fact, a recent study confirms that JDate is responsible for more Jewish marriages than all other dating sites combined.
JDate commissioned an independent research company, ResearchNow, to survey nearly 1,000 married Jewish Internet users. One of the most compelling findings showed that JDate is responsible for 52% of the Jewish marriages that started online, while only 17% of those surveyed met on Match.com® and 10% on eHarmony®. JDate is thrilled with the site’s success and cultural impact, but the real story of JDate lies in the hearts of JDaters® themselves.
There’s no better example of JDate’s profound impact on the Jewish community than the site’s hundreds of thousands of success stories. Arielle and Josh Hay of Riverdale, New York, who are recently married “products of JDate,” are all too familiar with the power of JDate. Before meeting Josh on JDate, Arielle attended two separate weddings for two close friends who met their spouses on JDate. Inspired by their successes, Arielle soon found herself creating a JDate profile and met her now husband Josh just days later.
Arielle and Josh Hay
One of the many differentiators making JDate such a unique online community is its nearly even 50:50 male-to-female member ratio. JDate’s reputation as a serious dating site for people looking for meaningful relationships stems from the site’s ability to successfully bring together likeminded singles with similar backgrounds, traditions and value systems.
Although most JDaters are members of the site to find their beshert, JDate offers more than just online profiles and search features. The site is also home to JMag®, a compelling online magazine that has attracted interviews with prominent Jews around the world such as Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, American comedians Bob Saget and Don Rickles, Israeli musical superstar Yael Naim, actor Jeremy Piven, the first African-American rabbi, Rabbi Alysa Stanton, Millionaire Matchmaker’s Patti Stanger and many more. Members can also find kosher recipes, an endless supply of dating advice, a global synagogue directory and Jewish holiday calendar.
Not only can JDaters feel part of a vibrant Jewish community online, but they can also find love offline at the 600+ JDate events that happen every year in major cities worldwide. JDate Travel and Events offers parties, classes, seminars and excursions; and, even sponsors getaways – past destinations have included everything from an all-inclusive Bahamian resort, a winter ski trip to Breckenridge or a meaningful Israel experience.
Over the past 14 years, JDate has made a significant impact on Jewish culture and religious leaders have begun using the site as a case study in curbing intermarriage. In a recent sermon to his congregation, Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner of Temple Emanu-El in Closter, New Jersey, said “70% of the weddings I’m doing meet on JDate. It’s an incredible number…I wonder how many are realizing that we are witnessing something that is changing the very fabric of the Jewish world?”
Rabbi Laurence Bazer of Temple Beth Sholom in Framingham, Massachusetts, has seen a similar trend: “It’s unusual – I would say it’s the exception – if I’m not [marrying] a couple that’s met on JDate.”
According to Newsweek, “Almost half of American Jews marry non-Jews, a rate of exodus that has more than tripled since 1970.” Given the trend in Jews marrying outside of the faith, coupled with JDate’s success, rabbis have begun purchasing JDate gift certificates in bulk for their single congregants to help them find love matches within the faith. But, according to Rabbi Kirshner, JDate may already be working to reverse the trend: “In the last decade it [the intermarriage rate] has dropped two points…It shows us that JDate is actually working.”
The real lesson of JDate’s impact on the Jewish community just might be that the story really isn’t that shocking after all. Over the last 15 years, the Internet has permanently changed the way people form and maintain lasting relationships. People now have the ability handpick the type of people they want to marry and aren’t limited to finding them through friends, at a nightclub or at work as they did before. The JDate story proves that Jews still have a strong desire to marry within the faith and maintain their family traditions; they just need a little help getting to the chuppah.
Julie and Phil Elson were married in 2006
Read about their success story at www.jewishscenemagazine.com/?p=6304
