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Bob McKeown
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Orthodox And Single
Orthodox Jewish singles look to
matchmakers and other traditional ways
of meeting potential spouses
ROBYN KLEEREKOPER
Special to The Jewish News
M
atchmaker,
matchmaker,
make me a
match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch.
Night after night r m alone in the
dark . . .
In Fiddler on the Roof, the musi-
cal adapted from the Sholem Aleichem
play of Tevya and His Daughters, the
song echoes the yearning of a young
girl to know her future, with mat-
rimony being inevitable. She and sev-
eral of her sisters marry, but the man-
ner in which they find their husbands
differs. The traditional values break
down over time, leaving the girls'
father confused and wondering.
Today, in Detroit's Orthodox
Jewish community, the old-fashioned
methods of finding someone to marry
are still considered acceptable, al-
though the picture of Yenta the
matchmaker has undergone some rad-
ical changes.
According to Halachah, Jewish
law, a man should marry as soon as he
is economically capable of doing so.
The modern idea of choosing to remain
single, that has become an acceptable
alternative lifestyle in the general
community, is not encouraged in the
Orthodox community.
"There is a feeling of sadness for
someone who does not marry. This in-
dividual could reach such happiness
and joy in life. We don't like the idea of
someone being alone. -Even the elderly
are encouraged to marry. The purpose
is to have a unit of people cooperating
and loving," says Rabbi Avraham
Jacobovitz, the director of Machon
L'Torah, the Jewish Network of
Michigan, an educational organiza-
tion that promotes Jewish culture and
philosophy.
Because marriage is the goal,
casual dating is considered by many
Orthodox people to be a waste of time
and emotional input. The swinging
singles' scene is not thought to be con-
.
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