JDate is responsible for more Jewish marriages than all other dating sites combined! But we’ve got more than just statistics to back it up. In our “Success Stories” feature, you’ll meet real couples who found love online.

Naomi & Sim

How did you meet? What was your first date like? Give us all the details!
Sim was my very first, only, and last JDate. What makes that even more special is that I didn’t even know I had a JDate account.

For years, my mother had been telling me I needed to sign up. All of the ladies in my grandfather’s assisted living complex also raved about how their granddaughters found their husbands on JDate (there are a lot of ladies in assisted living complexes). I was on a few Israeli sites, but I couldn’t be bothered to sign up for a new one. Sometime in November of 2013, shortly after giving birth to her son Judah and going on maternity leave, my sister found herself with more time on her hands. My mother was in New York helping out with Judah, and they decided it was time I join JDate. Naturally, I was not included in this decision-making process. My sister created an account and immediately set to work trawling JDate for the perfect guy. She found Sim. She wasn’t familiar with how the JDate site works (“It’s like a casino for lovers!”) and hot-listed him.

Meanwhile, Sim had been living in Israel for a few years and had left to help establish a startup in North America. He was currently based in Calgary. He had just decided that he wanted to return to Israel and booked a flight back home. Two days later, a woman in Jerusalem hot-listed him. He was astounded by the timing; how did she find him in Calgary of all places, and could her timing have been more perfect? Shortly thereafter, I received an email from my sister informing me that I have a JDate account, here is my password, and that she ‘likes the guy from Calgary,’ whose profile she cut and pasted into the accompanying email. Sim had actually taken the time to write about himself, and reading through it, I had to admit, he sounded like he’d be a great fit for me. The problem was that he lived on the other side of the world, as far as I knew, and I though I knew that many people shuttled between continents to date, I was having none of it. Sim reached out to me a few times, and I (shamefully) ignored him. Finally, I agreed to see him (the guilt set in).

Our first date was in one of our favourite places in the Old City of Jerusalem: The Austrian Hospice. It was seven hours, and though it was our first time meeting, I felt as if I was meeting up with an old friend or getting acquainted with myself. It was uncanny. My sister was spot on. We just got married two months ago, thanks to JDate and my sister!

Describe the moment you knew it was true love!

Walking on the ramparts of the Old City on our first date.

What advice would you give other JDaters?

Don’t give up. And forgive meddling ladies. Sometimes they get it right. And when they don’t, they mean well.

Did you find love online? Submit your story to share how you met your soulmate on JDate.