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June 29, 2001/Tamuz 8, 5761, Vol. 53, No.39
Chai Singles streamlines dating for Jewish singles
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Michael Morrison and Lindsey Seigle sit atop Flatiron on the Arizona Adventurers' Siphon Draw hike last December. Arizona Adventurers is one of several local Jewish singles organizations.
Photo courtesy of Lionel Hummel |
For single people who date, there is nothing worse than anxiously anticipating a first date, only to realize five minutes after you've sat down for dinner that it's not going to work. There is now another option for local Jewish singles.
Chai Singles is helping to streamline the initial dating process by presenting the "8-Minute Speed Power Date." The first event of this type was held May 19 at Temple Chai. A group of 100 singles was broken down into five age groups, with 10 men and 10 women in each group. Each person then had the opportunity to have an eight-minute "date" with each person of the opposite sex in the same age group.
At the beginning of the evening, and again in the middle, there was time for all of the singles to mingle and meet one another. At the end of the evening, each person selected two people they would be interested in seeing again and gave their list to the event facilitators. Any people who had chosen each other were given phone numbers by the facilitators. There were a total of 17 matches made through the "dating" process, although organizer Joan Brodsky says there were several couples who met during the social portions of the event.
"It's just another avenue for single people to meet one another without feeling like the only way to meet somebody is to go to a bar," she explains.
For Barrie Pence of Mesa, this was the first time she took part in a Chai Singles event. She says she enjoyed the event and while she didn't get matched with anyone in her group, she did begin dating one of the event's facilitators. She has since joined the committee to plan the next event, to be held July 21 (see sidebar for additional information).
Howard Gorsky has, likewise, never participated in a singles event, but he says he decided to try this one after hearing about it through a friend.
"I heard about the concept and couldn't believe something like that was being done here," he says. "It was kind of a big step for me, but I did it."
Gorsky says he did meet someone through the event and as a result made arrangements to see the woman again. He also says he will likely participate in the next event.
The concept of the "8-Minute Power Speed Date" stems from Aish HaTorah's SpeedDating. Aish HaTorah is an international Jewish educational network that began the SpeedDate concept in Los Angeles.
According to the Speed Dating.com Web site, the goal of the program is "to directly facilitate Jewish continuity by helping Jews meet Jews." While Aish HaTorah does not sponsor SpeedDating events in Arizona, the Web site does offer the opportunity for online dating.
Esta Hirchman of Scottsdale, board member of Chai Singles, facilitated a similar dating event called "Innovations" when she lived in Dallas. She says that the Dallas event brought in 3,400 singles and she hopes the local event will grow to be as successful.
Hirchman says she is currently working with the "8-Minute Power Speed Date" committee to help make the next event bigger and better.
"We knew the mistakes we made last time and we're improving on it," she explains.
One change will be the addition of a social event at a local restaurant immediately following the "Power Speed Date" event.
Hirchman also participated in the local event and she says she knew several of the men in her group already. In fact, she had even dated a few of them. She says it is important to go into this type of event with a positive attitude - to have fun and meet new people - and not necessarily to find a connection.
"There's no guarantee that you're going to meet the man of your dreams or the woman of your dreams," she says.
Brodsky says the organizers are very happy with the feedback they are receiving about the event.
"People who missed it asked when we'd be doing it again. People who participated are waiting for the second one," she explains. "For the most part, the feedback was very, very positive."
The "Power Speed Date" event is one of several Chai Singles events held each month, including happy hours, brunches and more. All Chai Singles events are open to anyone, of any age, who would like to participate.
"At any of our events I'd say we have 90 percent of people from the community and 5-10 percent of Temple Chai members," Brodsky explains. "We really wanted to open it to the entire Jewish community."
In an effort to bring together a variety of singles from the community, Chai Singles is co-sponsoring a dinner dance at Har Zion Congregation on Aug. 25. See sidebar for upcoming Chai Singles events, as well as July events for other local Jewish singles organizations.
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