Old-School Dating Becomes New Again

You can only swipe for so long.

By Rachel Fayne February 7, 2017, 1:28 pm Edit

Rachel is a reporter/contributor for the AJT and graduated from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. After post graduate work at Columbia University, she teaches writing at Georgia State and hosts/produces cable programming. She can currently be seen on Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters.

I heard recently about a matchmaking service based in Atlanta. It isn’t an app or even website-based. It is a partnership between two Jewish women who in their business want nothing more than the mitzvah of creating a match.

Inevitably, images come to mind of someone’s grandmother making a match through someone’s husband’s cousin at the synagogue or the friend of a friend of a nice Jewish friend.

On the contrary, matchmakers Beth Friedman and Jenna Shulman of juLuv are hardly old enough to be someone’s mother, let alone grandmother. And their catalog of subscribers is at about 700.

As someone who falls within the target age range of 18 to 35, the core of technology-based dating, I have a number of friends who met that way. One of my closest friends met his wife online, where she was using the screen name “Beard_Enthusiast.” She was, in fact, a beard enthusiast, and my friend happened to have a beard.

But for all the long-term relationships and successes resulting from technology-based dating, there’s an equal amount of the opposite: endless swiping, misrepresented photos, and even the occasional inappropriate message or two. Why wouldn’t those people want a matchmaker?

It certainly sounds like a viable option. The concept embodies old-school ideals, but what if that’s not such a bad thing to have in your corner? Shouldn’t everyone welcome a mensch with a knack for matches?

The way people meet is drastically different than it was even 10 years ago, but perhaps young people seeking a connection are looking beyond their iPhones or laptops and into the past these days. A red-blooded human being who is looking to match you with someone of the same faith and who wants to have a conversation about what you’re looking for can be vastly more appealing than a screen.

JuLuv and others are pioneering the matchmaking business, and young professionals in particular are reaping the benefits as many tire of online and app dating. The connections that can be missing from that kind of technology are exactly the elements present with one-on-one attention from a matchmaker.

After all, you can swipe for only so long.

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