My Jewish dating dilemma

It gives me zero joy to write this, but it feels necessary to call it out.

As if dating today isn’t unbearably difficult, soul crushing, anxiety-inducing and angsty enough, sprinkle some antisemitism on top of all that and you get yourself a fraught dating experience.

As a Jew, family is our core value, the glue of our culture, the fulfillment of god’s mission for us, the promise of our continuity as a people.

I truly wonder what God would say about dating today in the diaspora, and in particular, in Melbourne?

Do you remember the scene from the romantic comedy How To Be Single, where Lucy (played by Alison Brie) uses peanuts to explain to her friend Tom (Anders Holm) why it is difficult to find a suitable boyfriend in New York City when you look at the breakdown of eligible people?

I must note that when she starts her whole spiel, examining the half of the population who identify as men, she begins with a solid four million – in Victoria, there are 26,189 Jewish men.

I’m no statistician, but it doesn’t require any interpretation to see this math for what it is.

When you consider who is single, who is in an appropriate age range, who is straight, who is university educated, who is not orthodox, who would be ok with not necessarily having kids, who is well-travelled, who is intelligent (in the IQ and EQ sense), a non-smoker/vaper/drug-taker, has good values, is a feminist, looks after their physical and mental health, and who I’d find interesting and attractive…