Laura is a lover of languages, and after becoming fluent in German, learning French, Spanish and some Hindi, she decided to move on to Hebrew.  This inspired her to learn about Judaism and she decided to pursue conversion.  She felt strongly about meeting and marrying a Jewish guy and one of her non-Jewish friends suggested JDate, because he had several friends who had become engaged as a result of using the site.  Shlomo’s non-Jewish friends also suggested JDate to him because of several engagements.

Laura became a non-paying member in May 2003, so she could only respond to emails sent to her.  Shlomo joined as a full member in May 2003 and a couple weeks later in June, he sent an email to Laura.  Laura liked how smart and interesting Shlomo seemed from his profile (he was getting his PhD in Neuroscience), he also spoke Hebrew and, of course, was cute.  And even though they both were at the University of Michigan, they never had met as it is a very big school.  After a few emails back and forth, they spoke on the phone for a few days and were amazed at how it felt; as though they were best friends already and could talk about anything or nothing at all (both Laura and Shlomo were very shy and had a hard time talking to other guys/girls)!

They decided to meet on the evening of June 19, 2003, for their first date at Starbucks on State St. in Ann Arbor; they would then go to the summer festival at Top of the Park to talk and spend a couple of hours together. Shlomo took a day off from his lab and spent the entire day getting ready for the date.  When he met Laura, he thought she looked even more beautiful than her JDate picture. Even though the date didn’t go quite as planned (Shlomo being interrupted by a long talk with his parents and Laura also getting phone calls she had to answer), they had a good time and decided to meet again. 

A few days later, Laura moved away to Farmington Hills to be closer to her law firm clerkship as well as to her law school at the University of Detroit Mercy, where she was starting in the fall.  But, the 30 miles distance did not deter Laura and Shlomo and they went out on several dinner and movie dates, as well as to the Independence Day fireworks in downtown Detroit.  Shlomo was pretty nervous on the first few dates, but Laura was glad she gave him the chance to open up; by the 5^th date they decided to officially be boyfriend and girlfriend.  In just a few months, they knew they were in love and would get married; they just had to wait until they were done with school so instead they became “engaged to be engaged.” But what’s really amazing is they are each other’s first real boyfriend/girlfriend AND they are the only people each met in person on JDate.  How beshert!

During their first year of Laura being in law school, they spent a lot of time together doing Laura’s homework, while Shlomo did research in his lab on the weekend or by making trips to LA (to visit Shlomo’s parents), Chicago, New York, London and Paris in their free time. A year after meeting, Shlomo moved in with Laura so that they could have more time together.  Then, in May 2005, on one of Laura’s two-week breaks in between semesters, they went to Israel to meet more of Shlomo’s family (he is an Israeli-American). They got engaged in Eilat, where Shlomo told her he loved her before he even met her.  Laura finished law school in May 2006, finished her conversion and the bar exam that summer and was finally able to start planning the wedding.  They got married on May 6, 2007 (Lag B’Omer). Both agree it was the best day of their lives and were happy to share it with so many friends and relatives.  They honeymooned in Israel, the Greek Islands and Turkey. 

Since their wedding, and after Shlomo received his PhD, they moved to LA where Shlomo is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at UCLA and Laura is a senior patent attorney at Kohn & Associates in Farmington Hills (she telecommutes – it beats the traffic in LA).  They spend their time together surfing, snowboarding and traveling the world.  Some of their favorite places besides Israel have been India, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Peru, Chile and Argentina… and they are looking forward to seeing Southeast Asia this fall.

Laura & Shlomo
Los Angeles, California