Whether you have an active membership on JWed or J-Date or you hate the idea of creating an online profile at all, one thing is certain; online dating is here to stay.
Meeting people online has become so common and successful that any stigma that was attached to it has been replaced by acceptance and even prestige. We listen joyfully to stories of friends finding their bashert that could never had occurred without the help of an online intermediary. A recent study found that more than a third of recent marriages in the United States began online. Experience shows that a good match is most likely to be formed between people with similar outlooks, attitudes, beliefs and backgrounds. Creating an online profile is a succinct way to communicate all these aspects of yourself in a safe space, while at the same time finding someone else who fulfils your expectations. While many Jewish couples share their stories of meeting the perfect match online, there are also the stories of being matched up with people who turned out to not be ideal. Just like in real life, every soulmate search should be done responsibly and safely and the disclaimers on each online dating site should be taken seriously.
Loren from South Africa and Moshe from Australia
MOSHE’S STORY:
I decided to join a dating website. Everything was mentioned: kids, current work status and hobbies I enjoyed. Typical dating site stuff. I would check the site daily and see if anyone had fancied me or replied to my message and to my surprise a bubbly very attractive young lady with a perfect smile (my unbiased opinion, of course) wrote a comment that caught my eye. From memory she wrote: “So what’s it like to be on the dating scene again?” I had planned a seven-day caravan trip with my daughter along the Great Ocean Road and informed Loren about this as I hoped the opportunity to make her acquaintance wouldn’t slip through my fingers. I made the effort to at least contact her whenever I was in mobile reception during that trip just to make sure she wouldn’t think I was one of those guys. The day I arrived back I asked Loren if she would have the pleasure of accompanying me to dinner. En-route to collect Loren for our date, an elderly man who was my neighbour at the time rang my doorbell requesting a ride to his lady friend’s house. He couldn’t have chosen a better time. So I drove him to his destination. His words to me were: “something special will come your way”. With a very valid excuse for being late (if only she knew then about my habitual lateness) I have since had the wonderful pleasure of having her in my life. She is my “something special”
Things moved swiftly forward from that first date. 18 months later I proposed. Six months after that we were married in gorgeous Koh Samui, Thailand and we are now getting ready to move into our first home.