ChabadMatch.com Celebrates 100 Engaged Singles

ChabadMatch.com, a matchmaking site for Lubavitch singles and shadchanim featuring the largest online database of Lubavitch singles, recently celebrated its 50th engagement — that’s 100 happy Chabad individuals who are single no longer!

Since its inception, ChabadMatch.com has been connecting Lubavitch singles with Lubavitch matchmakers throughout the world, enabling shadchanim to match singles much more accurately and efficiently.

Engaged singles #99 and #100 have Mrs. Yehudis Abramowitz to thank for connecting them. The Monsey-based matchmaker has found the site to be a valuable tool in helping her find and match individuals based on their ChabadMatch.com profiles. Mrs. Abramowitz visits and browses the site almost daily, conducting research regarding Lubavitch singles, as well as searching for updated and new profiles. While not every match she suggests is a homerun, many of her suggestions are still pursued because they are not too far off base.

Miriam from Crown Heights met her husband through ChabadMatch last year. “What I liked about ChabadMatch is that there are online previews. So I could first look at the profiles and then have the ability to go to a shadchan with suggestions that I already had some interest in pursuing,” she says. Using a shadchan was important to her, but she discovered that shadchanim didn’t always know her well enough to weed out inappropriate matches. ChabadMatch enabled her to do her own weeding and, eventually, selecting, even before going to the shadchan. “After doing some preliminary research and seeing a profile that looked interesting to me, I was able to approach a shadchan to see if it was a viable option and, if it was something to pursue, to help set it up in the appropriate manner through a matchmaker.”

The key to the site’s success in connecting so many singles is the size and diversity of its database. With the conventional dating methods used in the frum community, a single is limited to being offered only other singles whom the shadchan knows personally. Alternatively, the database offers shadchanim a wider variety of singles to present to their clients. One helpful feature that matchmakers find to be very valuable, is the ability for shadchanim to type personal notes for themselves on singles’ profiles.

For this reason and others, shadchanim turn to the site to match their singles with others. Rabbi Yonah Avtzon is a Crown Heights-based matchmaker, who uses ChabadMatch.com as a tool. “I’ve made hundreds of successful shidduchim, baruch Hashem,” he says, “and I find ChabadMatch to be one of the most useful tools for making Chabad shidduchim today.”

Another Crown Heights-based shadchan, Mrs. Shaindel Malka Blasberg, says that she checks and spends time on ChabadMatch almost daily.

ChabadMatch simplifies the shidduch-searching process and helps avoid many of the headaches that typically come with trying to make shidduchim.

It’s not uncommon that parents or singles become frustrated when a shadchan hasn’t approached him with any offers in a while. A person might wonder whether the shadchan forgot about him, but at the same time he does not want to keep checking in with her for fear of coming across as desperate or overly aggressive. But with ChabadMatch, once your profile is listed on the database, shadchanim can always access it and, if you choose, a limited version of your profile will come up when others conduct profile searches on the site as well.

For many singles, it can be difficult to reach out to shadchanim for help. That’s why Chaim, 23, from South America, submitted an online profile through ChabadMatch. “This way lots of the shadchanim I choose can see my profile, and I don’t have to call them to remind them about me,” he says. “Finding the right shidduch is hard work, and it’s important to use every available option, because you don’t know where the bracha is going to come from. Plus, an online profile makes me feel more comfortable and eliminates a lot of the embarrassment.”

Another benefit of ChabadMatch is time. Let’s face it; the shidduch process can be long and is oftentimes mentally, emotionally and financially draining. Parents and singles can save time and avoid unnecessary effort by conducting limited searches of profiles on the site. This allows users to view descriptions of singles written in their own words, but without names, photos, cities, or references—and to then contact the shadchanim associated with the singles whose profiles interest them. This puts the initiating power in the hands of the parents and singles, while easing the burden on the shadchanim.

“It can sometimes be very difficult to convince one single to go out with another single, but with ChabadMatch, the single and his or her parent have already seen the other person’s profile and expressed an interest. This aspect makes the entire process easier and smoother,” says Mrs. Abramowitz.

Yet another concern to many singles and parents is privacy. With ChabadMatch, you have full control over who sees your profile. You can even limit which shadchanim have access to your profile and how much information is visible to those searching. You can choose to allow parents and singles to see a limited part of your profile, without seeing your name, photo, hometown, references or any information that will reveal your identity.

The matchmaking process works in a variety of ways:

The first is where a shadchan makes a shidduch suggestion based on two profiles that appear to be compatible. The second is where you (single or parent) conduct a search and see a limited profile that is of interest, and then contact that single’s shadchan. Another scenario is one in which a parent or single sees your profile and contacts your shadchan. Or you can reach out to a shadchan from the site’s shadchan list, who, after getting to know you, sets you up with someone not yet on the site. (Yes, ChabadMatch can be a tool to set couples up even when one or both of the singles is not listed on the site.)

To date, over 50 happy engagements have resulted from the site, and possibly others who have not yet notified the site’s administrators. The large number of successful matches is proof that the database is a huge success.