It was the summer of 2021. Every shliach knows the routine: planning for the upcoming year, scheduling events, figuring out how to fund them, and of course, how to promote the next big program.
For many, that includes sending out calendars, attending booths and fairs, and designing flyers inviting people to High Holiday services. Then comes the mass email: listing holiday times, a donation button, and general announcements.
Houston Shluchim, Rabbi Chaim and Chanie Lazaroff, decided to include something different.
They included a short note about a program called Met@Chabad:
Looking to get married? This might be an avenue worth trying.
Justin, a young professional who had been invited off the street to help make a minyan and then joined the email list, received that message. With nothing to lose, he clicked the link and signed up.
It wasn’t until one Friday night that fall, November 2021, that Justin walked into Chabad of Uptown, Houston, and introduced Deanna of CYP Charlotte, NC, led by Rabbi Motti and Chaya Groner, to the community.
They were very proud to announce to everyone that they “Met at the Chabad” speed dating in July.
Fast forward to this year, they announced their engagement, Baruch Hashem.
This story took years to unfold. But it all began with one small line in an email that changed Justin and Deanna’s lives.
He wasn’t actively involved with Chabad at the time, yet it still made all the difference.
Sometimes, it takes one small act, a line in an email, a personal invite, a few words in a flyer, to shift the entire trajectory of someone’s life.
With intermarriage rates at over 72% (outside the Orthodox world), we don’t have the luxury of waiting for someone else to act.
Whether it’s a co-worker, a Yid you meet on a plane, or someone you meet on Mivtzoim, each of us can be that shliach. We are all in this together.
———-
Fellow Shluchim,
It doesn’t take much. As Yom Tov approaches, help your singles begin not just a new year, but a new chapter with a Jewish spouse. Let them know about Met@Chabad.
You never know who’s still on your list: a former student, a holiday guest, someone who was your tzenter for the minyan.
They might not show up, but they’re still reading.
Since its founding, Met@Chabad has introduced thousands of singles and helped dozens of couples get engaged, all through local shluchim like you.
Baruch Hashem, locally, we have also seen tremendous success with countless matches, many still seriously dating, and two marriages!
This Monday, Rosh Chodesh Elul (August 25), Met@Chabad will host the largest-ever Global Virtual Speed Dating event. Jewish singles will meet up to five matches, nine minutes each, in a secure, private setting, from 1,000 Chabad Houses across the globe.
It’s their chance to meet someone they never would have otherwise. It might be awkward. It might be amazing. It might be their Bashert.
Encourage them. Remind them they’re not alone.
Together, we can build more Jewish homes.
Together, we can change more lives.
All it takes is one line.
Rabbi Chaim and Chanie Lazaroff
Chabad of Uptown, Houston, TX
Shluchim can access design resources for their communities here: http://tiny.cc/allspeeddatingresources
Great initiative! Unfortunately Inter marriages are still on the rise, but just clarify in Los Angeles you are not invited to come synagogue for the High Holidays you are definitely invited to pay 💰 for you seat or better make a plan payment or no seat granted by Chabad it’s cheaper than others but that’s the reality on the ground and btw it’s getting more and more expensive every year , other point it seems that only “ young professionals “ are encouraged to get married in very elitist Jewish communities if you don’t have that status too bad that’s… Read more »
for those who can’t afford to pay.
the shidduch system is very flawed in many ways. everyone who is a leader within the system needs to fix it. first of all why do you create castes where castes should not be? there should not be a separate website for children of shluchim to date, separate from chabadmatch. you are not a superior species.
I believe ‘rejection is protection.’ Naive new(er) Lubavitchers ‘don’t know, what they don’t know. Including lots of skeletons in lots of closets. The Russian families are more aware. Knowledge is power AND protection. ‘Lozz’/allow them their elite data base. Shidduchim is Mazal and Rizz anyway and we all need Great Compassion from Above: Hashem doesn’t play favorites. Hatzlacha and Shana Tova, Moshiach Now to everyone.
is way off. completely different from the rest of society. and completely wrong.
This is a newish program. Perhaps a similar program for other Jews who don’t fit into the ‘Young Professional’ box will be or can be made.