Online Jewish Dating

Online Jewish dating can be an incredibly interesting and exciting experience. It can lead to marriage and life long bliss. Thousands of people have met their soul mates through online services. At the same time many people, with the same goal at heart, have been emotionally or physically hurt, conned out of all their savings and left embarrassed and psychologically injured.

The most important advise I have heard over and over again is that online Jewish dating services should be used as means of introduction and initiation of a relationship rather than medium for maintaining an online or a long-distance relationship with a virtual stranger. Following the below tips will help you keep the online dating process focused and safe.

1.     Create an interesting and completely truthful profile. Your profile is like a shopping window.

2.     Ideally, start approaching people who live nearby. It’s quite important that you actually meet the person who awaked your interest within the first few weeks. Long term online dating is never a good idea. Without a real life contact, when all we are dealing are words and a photograph, our imagination can play major tricks on us.

3.     Your second option would be approaching people who live close to your family or friends. For example if you live in NY and you have a cousin in LA it’s a good idea to “target” LA. It’s much easier to arrange a meeting when you have somewhere to stay. And again – it’s safer this way. 

4.     If someone refuses a face-to-face meeting or keeps delaying it – break off the online relationship. It is always a bad sign when this happens. Don’t ever trust unconditionally someone whom you’ve met online. Thousands of people, including myself, have found their soul mates online. At the same time, you need to remember that you might come across a con artists just about anywhere - online Jewish dating sides included.

5.     The first few meetings must take place in a public, busy place. Remember – keeping yourself safe is your first priority.

6.     Tell your family or friends where the meeting is taking place and what time they should expect you back. Don’t agree to any last minute changes and make sure you are home on time – you don’t want to get your family worried unnecessarily.

7.     It’s a good idea to keep it anonymous till the first meeting. Don’t reveal your name, phone number, place of work or address.

8.     Don’t reveal any financial information. Don’t agree to lend money or sponsor anything for your online friend. Not ever!

9.     Some online Jewish dating services provide reference check on your behalf. Many others don’t. It is a good idea to agree on exchanging reference information during the first meeting. A mature, reasonable person will understand the necessity of such request. Make sure you do your homework ahead of the second date; rarely, but sometimes it happens that contacted “referees” don’t exist or had never heard of the person who provided their contact details.