 Dear JRetroMatch,
Greetings from the home of my future in-laws. Last night, the mom of my fiancée, Ilene Harris, hosted a small get together in honor of our engagement and Ilene and I were asked by numerous friends and family about how we met. Both of us were so happy to tell the story of JRetro and explain how we met:
In July, Ilene was living in New York City, teaching summer school, and I was completing my 2 years in Johannesburg, South Africa as an economist and was preparing for my return to the US. I had dated in South Africa a lot, but I never found the right match. Interested in dating once back in either New York, I was encouraged by my friend to join JRetro. Since I was overseas in July of 2006, Ilene and I communicated through email for the entire month. We asked and wrote about camping, cycling, public transportation, religion, politics, love, travel, and museums. I found that we had so much in common and that we were a good match. My matchmaker didn't need to ask me to widen my preferences since Ilene fit very well within my preferences. During the last week on July, I flew out of Johannesburg to renew my life in America. I was looking forward to speaking with Ilene. By early August, being back in the US, we began speaking on the telephone regularly. Our conversations were meaningful and exciting, and I was surprised that we had so much in common. I was anxious for the first date and we decided we would meet for a first date on August 21st on the Upper West Side. We had so much in common and we were truly a good match on paper. I was very grateful to my matchmaker and JRetro for the effort of finding me such a good match on “paper”. Now it was time to see if we would be a good match in real life. After dinner, we wanted to talk more, so we went for a walk in Central Park, by the Pond at 103rd Street. We wanted to spend even more time together, so we decided on having a second date the next evening. We went to Central Park for Opera in the Park and a romantic picnic. We had numerous dates the coming months and fell in love.
I knew I was going to propose to Ilene in the coming months. She was perfect for me. There was no reason to wait. I knew so much about her and her life goals, and they fit so perfectly with me and my goals. So, on March 17, 2007, less than 7 months after our first date, I proposed. We went to the same spot in Central Park, near the Pond at 103rd street where we walked to on our first date. I gave her my grandmother's diamond ring and asked her to marry me. She said yes. I am very grateful to everyone that has been supportive, from my friends to JRetromatch. JRetro found someone that matched me based not just on my Jewish and my secular history, but on my Jewish and secular future.
I had used other online dating sites with limited success. I knew I wanted to use a Jewish online dating service, as opposed to meeting someone at a bar or on the street. Ilene had also tried online dating, speed dating, and other ways of meeting a nice Jewish man, but also with little success. I was returning to the US and I wanted to date on a higher level; I was not just looking for a girlfriend, I wanted a serious relationship. I found that JRetro was perfect for this. It is a different type of online dating, one that would give you a personalized Jewish matchmaker. The advice I would give to anyone dating would be to try it. The matchmaker has the ability to screen thousands of profiles and offer you the best few matches for you. They really do facilitate a meaningful courting process.
With affection and appreciate,
Jacob Kosoff
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| When Ilana came back to New York from school in Boston, she had lost most of her connections and networks. One day, someone mentioned to her that she should sign up to the site, but Ilana scoffed at the idea, thinking she would never do that. “I was skeptical about online dating,” she said. “I did not want everyone out there to know I was dating online—it did not seem discreet.” But a few weeks later, Ilana changed her mind. She wanted to start dating and she decided to sign up because it offered her the network of dating that she needed, as well as the privacy and classiness that was important to her. |
Ilana had only been on the site for one month, and had only gone out with one other date from the site, when she was sent the profile of Daniel. At first, the profile did not seem an exact match to what she was looking for so she sent his profile to her best friend for a second opinion. Her friend thought she should go out with him. |
The next day, however, Ilana decided to accept Daniel, thinking, “Why not just give it a try?” There were many good things about his profile that appealed to Ilana, including the fact that he was “down to earth, open minded, a chilled out personality, mature, funny, intelligent and very attractive.” She thought to herself, “You never know.” |
So, the first date arrived, and guess what? “It was amazing,” says Ilana. She knew right away that this was a good thing and that something positive was going to come of it. On the date, Ilana and Daniel went out to dinner for wraps and just sat they talking for hours and hours. Ilana was so impressed with Daniel and felt comfortable straight away. |
After the date, Ilana emailed that same friend with the subject line “I Like Him!!!” Her friend knew there was something special about this guy. |
The very next day Daniel called Ilana and the two proceeded to go out. The matchmaker just so constructive at the start and resolved any issues I had. After a while we didn’t feel that we needed as much input so just sent updates. Four months later Ilana and Danny were engaged. The wedding is planned for February, and Ilana says (after her initial skepticism) “It will make for an interesting story to tell our kids” |
| Jennifer was at a friend’s for a party and right before the party was about to begin Jennifer’s phone rang but Jennifer did not answer, thinking it was not a good time to take a call. After the party, Jennifer picked up the message and it was from one of the matchmakers saying that she just met this guy and she thought of Jennifer! The one catch was that the guy was in New York from LA only until Tuesday morning and wondered if Jennifer would please call her back. That night Jennifer and the matchmaker played phone tag back and forth at least five times until they finally got in touch with each other. |
The next day, Jennifer had a chance to look at Randy’s profile and she saw many things that were appropriate and on target for her. She especially liked the way he described his personality (confident but without an ego), his outlook on life, and his interests. She could not really tell if she’d be attracted to him, but she decided to give it a try anyway because of what Randy had written in his profile. She thought to herself, “It is just one date, why not?” |
Randy called Jennifer 6:30 that day and they met at Starbucks at 8:30. Randy claims that as soon as Jennifer walked in the door, he knew there was something different and special about her. The date was incredibly comfortable and natural and afterwards, on her way home, Jennifer marveled at how normal the date was, and how she was, for the first time, not second guessing what she said and what he said, and analyzing this and that. She felt that everything had gone smoothly and that was a great feeling for her. |
The second date was the very next day, and on that date Randy said something to Jennifer that made her think to herself “This one might really be a keeper.” At the end of the second date, Randy put Jennifer in a taxi, gave the driver money and asked the driver to take Jennifer home. Jennifer says that in over 10 years if dating, and plenty of guys, Randy is only the 3rd guy who had ever done that! As Randy was about to close the door to the taxi, he asked Jennifer if he could call her again, and she told him straight out, “yes.” Jennifer was amazed with herself because normally she tells the man to call the matchmaker, but in this case, she told him directly to call her. Even though she had never been that straight with a guy and her behavior was outside her normal range, she did not feel scared or nervous. Instead, she felt comfortable and she knew that this feeling was special and that it said something about their relationship. |
Randy returned to LA that Tuesday and for the first week or so, the two spoke a few times. Then, Randy and Jennifer began speaking every night for 2-3 hours a night! When Randy came back to New York after one month to see Jennifer again, the couple saw each other twice and just talked for hours and hours while walking around the city, sitting in Central Park or eating dinner. At this point, Jennifer knew she really wanted to hold onto him. |
The matchmaker was involved every step of the way. Both Randy and Jennifer spoke to her almost every day about their expectations and perspectives, especially since it was a long distance relationship, and the experience was different given the physical distance between them, |
While Jennifer and Randy were apart in different cities, it was difficult for both of them, and they spoke to each other and text messaged each other constantly. Jennifer made one trip to LA and after that Randy came to NY every second week to see Jennifer. Three and a half months after their first date, Randy proposed to Jennifer in New York. The happy couple is planning an early February wedding. |
Jennifer has been on the Site since its inception and she says there have been hits and misses with various men until she met Randy. If it was not for the site and for the matchmaker, Jennifer does not see how it would have been possible for Randy and her to have met each other. Congratulations to the happy couple! |
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