It is known that in the world nowadays is a “Shiduch crisis” — a phenomenon in which people cannot find their soul mate for quite some time. There are many reasons for this. The situation is complicated by the fact that the modern world, if you can say so, have expanded, and people often look for their soul mate in other cities and even in other countries. However, the circle of contacts of both young people and Shadchans is still mostly limited to personal acquaintances within the same city. The Shiduch.org project, designed to bring together geographically dispersed Shadchans and young (and not so) people, comes to help in solving the problem of finding Shiduch in the global Jewish world.

We bring to your attention the translation of the interview with Chaya Maltsev (one of the Shadchaniyot of the Russian part of the website Shiduch.org), which shared with us the history and details of this website.

— Chaya, how long has the Shiduch.org project been around? Whom is it for?

— The idea appeared in November 2010, and the project was launched in March 2011. Our website is designed for both religious and secular Jews.

There are different Shadchans on the website — some work only with religious Jews, others with both: secular and religious.

In addition to bringing together Jews from all around the world, this website is also an indispensable tool in the hands of the Shadchan. After all, it is not only matter of remembering the details of each candidate, but even more so, it is not always possible to remember the right person at the right time. The site helps Shadchan in his work, thereby increasing the speed and quality of his work. Some Shadchans even wonder how they worked without this website before.

— Who is financing this project?

— This website exists without sponsors: on a volunteer basis and on the website’s own resources.

— Does website requires payment for its services?

—  Almost all the services of this website itself are free. Although, of course, each Shadchan has its own working conditions — for example, some Shadchans work, having agreed in advance on the amount, others work completely free of charge. You can read about most of the Shadchans and the conditions of their work on the website on the Shadchans-page, which will be available after registration. In any case, in the case of a successful dating and wedding, it is necessary to thank the Shadchan who introduced both candidates to each other, in accordance with the agreements with the Shadchan and own abilities.»

The only paid function on this website is the page with open profiles, where users can see profiles of other candidates who decided to open their profile on their own and expressed a desire to meet someone. But even in this case, dating takes place through the chosen Shadchan. The cost of access to this page is symbolic and depends on the country of residence

— What was the reason for the implementation of this project?

— The impulse for the creation of this project was the situation that has developed among Russian-speaking Jewry, when Jews in process of looking for their soul mate contacted only the local Shadchan in their city. It turns out in a vicious circle of the same people who revolve around their city. A little bit later we implemented the English part also.

http://Shiduch.org offers an alternative approach: the database of people registered on it is shared and allows all Shadchans from different cities to view all the candidates included in the database, including other Shadchans. Thereby, the geography and choice of grooms and brides is significantly increased.

Any Jewish gentlemen or Jewish lady who wants to find a soul mate has the opportunity to register on their own and not wait for his/her Shadchan to enter information about them into the database

The candidate must fill out a questionnaire, answering questions and telling about himself/herself what he/she considers necessary, and describing the person he/she is looking for»

After that, you need to contact several Shadchans on our website. A description of almost all of them can be found on the page of each Shadchan.

It is important to select several Shadchans and write them so that they will pay attention to your questionnaire. Also it is very important not to be limited to this, but to go through an interview with the Shadchan on Skype, by phone or in person.

After all, there are many people, Shadchanim offer shiduch to those who contacted them personally.

— Please share with us the interim results of the project for today.

— The main result is created families, but in addition to that, as a result of staying on this website and communicating with the Shadchans, candidates can better understand what they need, how to find a couple, etc. This is very clearly seen from the reviews of the Shadchans, and we also see it for ourselves by our friends who are in search.

To this website also added an information section with articles about shiduchs and family life.

A few thousand people are currently registered.

— Were there already weddings that took place thanks to this website?

— At the moment, we know about more than 100 couples (most of them was on the Russian part of the site) whom our project with the help of God helped to find each other. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to publish information about themselves and their wedding photos, because they are shy. In addition there are still couples who simply left the website without reporting their wedding. For example, there were those who wrote that they were already within preparation for the wedding, but we don’t know anything about their further fate.

An unexpected meeting is certainly great and romantic. But in life it does not always happen Also it is like in books and movies.

When a person (in our case, a Shadchan) knows a guy and a girl, knows what she is looking for and what he is looking for and realizes that they can be fit to each other and introduce them to each other — it may be that romance in the beginning is less, but the strength of relationships and the family as a whole thing is much higher.

If you are also in active (or not so) search for your Jewish soul mate — register and you will be on the website http://Shiduch.org

Feedbacks from visitors of the website http://Shiduch.org  (translation from Russian, stylistics of the authors of the comments was saved):

I express my deep gratitude to the website Shiduch.org, to the administrator and to all Shadchans, especially to Elisheva Altman, that the Almighty connected me and Michael with her help.

From myself I want to tell everyone, those who have not found their soul mate yet, the main thing is not to despair! Go to Shiduch.org, register, contact the Shadchans, meet, SEEK!

Pray, ask the Almighty to help you. He will certainly help! Who asks will receive, who seeks will always find!

Thanks again and good luck!

* * *

Many thanks to the website and to everyone who supports it, because it helped me to find my true soul mate! I am very happy and wish everyone who has not yet found their happiness to find it soon. I met here only understanding caring people — thanks to everyone for their attentiveness, kindness and delicacy. Do good things, and may the Lord protect you!

* * *

Shalom to all employees and to all visitors of the Shiduch.org website! We would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts, first of all the Almighty, that He answered our prayers with all love and mercy, and made us Shiduch, which Baruch Am ended, that is, better to say «began» with wedding!

Nothing happens by chance, and we also see that it was not by chance that the Almighty chose our acquaintance to happen through this website. When we registered on the website, we did not expect at all that our «Zivug» could come through the website. But the Almighty finds the most amazing ways that we least expect!

On Shiduch.org are working wonderful Shadchanim, as well as administrative workers, Yerey Shamaim, (God-fearing) who, with all honesty, seriousness and responsibility, approach this very difficult Avodat Kodesh. (holy work)

We are sincerely grateful to all this website’s employees, and especially to our wonderful Shadchanite Miriam Portnoy (Gurfinkel), who supported us a lot, wisely led us throughout Shiduch, and also helped a lot in organizing the wedding itself! Thank you very much dear website Shiduch.org!

* * *

I would like to say a few words about the website visitors: Dear everyone who is looking for Shiduch! We know how difficult it is sometimes, the search for our second half… And sometimes it comes to such despair, to the feeling that this process will never end (God forbid!), and as if the Almighty had forgotten especially about me… It’s not like that!!! Dear ones, you are not allowed to despair, the Almighty hears everyones prayer, and Beezrat HaShem, He will give to everyone the best for him! We all need to try to hear Him, even a little bit, because sometimes it is very difficult… but He really wants that we pray to Him and cry until we “get it”! (We’ll definitely get it !!! We strongly advise you, if you haven’t done it yet, to join the group “One for all and all for one”. This is a Tehilim reading for finding a soul mate. This is an incredible power, and we have already seen many miracles! Refer to the wonderful Shadchanit, Olga Pessi Katz, on this website, and she will distribute Tehilim.

We wish everyone good luck, a lot of Blessings in everything, and a Geula for the whole People of Israel soon enough! Ir»a and Dina Goyfeld

* * *

I want to thank the organizers of this website because thanks to it my husband and I met and got successfully married 2 months ago. And also thanks to all the Shadchans who constantly fussed for me and did not despair not for a minute. Thank you! This website opens up great opportunities for Russian-speaking Jews and thanks to it, there becomes possible those shiduchs which were absolutely impossible in standard conditions. And this is a big deal !!!

I want to bless all the participants of this website so that the Almighty sends all of them their Zivug Agun in the near future right now !!! Do not despair and continue to pray! Almighty accepts the prayers from everyone and loves us very much !!!

Michal-Rina

* * *

Thanks to the website of Jewish dating Shiduch.org for creating our young family.

I’ll briefly tell the story of its creation.

I registered on this website more than a year ago,

The Astrakhan rabbi Yisroel Melamed gave me a link to this website, which he brought from the seminar of teachers from Stars, which was held in Dnepropetrovsk.

I wrote to many Shadchans, talked with them on Skype, met girls, but there was no mutual sympathy, or they did not want to move to me in Astrakhan.

Once I decided to watch video-seminar about shiduch hosted by Shadchanit Yoheved Blank on the website.

After the seminar there was a conversation in the chat, where I asked Yoheved to help me with the shiduch. She lived then in Odessa and proposed several options which did not fit.

After that, Yoheved moved to Saratov and invited me to chat with a girl Golda from Saratov, who was not registered on this website, but simply went to the Stars-program.

We exchanged contacts and began to communicate.

Yoheved helped in solving the arising difficulties, gave wise advices and even invited me to visit Saratov, where I together with Golda visited her and then went to the Stars class.

Then Golda came to Astrakhan at the invitation of the Astrakhan rabbi, and on June 9, 2014 we had a chuppah in Astrakhan, to which Yoheved kindly agreed to come to, she helped a lot with the chuppah, and brought the chuppah itself (canopy) from Saratov.

The wedding was remembered by all Astrakhan people, thanks to Yoheved, because she was very cheerful.

Thanks to Shiduch.org, to the Stars program, from which I learned about this website, and to the Shadchanit — about Golda, as well as all the Shadchans who helped me find my soul mate and were very happy for us when we did achieve our goal.

Now I recommend this website to all my unmarried friends.

This is a real opportunity to find a Jewish soul mate, which we wish to all unmarried.

Michael and Golda