For over three decades, L’Chaim Shidduch Organization, headquartered in Monsey, has been facilitating the creation of hundreds of shidduchim. Through bi-annual shidduch marathons, L’Chaim has assisted Orthodox singles across the religious spectrum in navigating the arduous and sometimes frustrating journey to finding an appropriate partner for life.
Once again, during the upcoming Nine Days in Av, August 4 through August 11, L’Chaim will be organizing its Shidduch meetings throughout the United States and Canada. In addition, meetings held internationally in countries such as Israel, Belgium and England give L’Chaim a global reach. L’Chaim’s shidduch meeting format, available on its website, www.lchaimshidduch.com, details the steps needed to set up a shidduch meeting.
Meetings can target a particular age group and category, such as Full-Time Learners, Learner/Earners, Working, Modern Orthodox, Chasidim, Baalei Teshuva and Geirim, Second-Time Singles and the Physically or Mentally Challenged. In smaller communities it is advisable to open meetings to a wider range of ages and categories.
L’Chaim has always promoted the Torah precept of advocacy on behalf of others. The singles in our community need us—parents, close relatives and caring friends—to advocate on their behalf to reach the most important milestone in their lives. By advocating for our singles, we elevate them from a mere statistic on a computer to a unique individual whose persona will be brought to life by the care and sensitivity of a concerned sponsor. As a result of her familiarity with the single, the Shadchan is able to provide an honest, accurate description that will enable others to suggest appropriate matches.
L’Chaim’s record of success is impressive. In the five days available to make shidduch meetings during the Nine Days event of the summer of 2018, 45 meetings were hosted globally. The winter 2019 Shidduch blitz from Rosh Chodesh Shevat through Tu B’Shevat resulted, over a 10-day period, in 80 shidduch meetings, which were held nationally and internationally. Shidduchim resulting from these two shidduch events include a full-time learner aspiring to become a rebbe and a 21-year-old teacher, a young male social worker and a female in the medical profession and a young man with a degree in political science and a practicing social worker. L’Chaim is pleased to have also been the conduit for the match between a young man with a disability with a high-functioning young woman with Downs Syndrome.
The Nine Days, which represent a period in our history of loss and despair caused by the insensitivity of our brethren to each other, can be transformed by elevating it to one of caring and concern for others. Join L’Chaim as it gears up for its Nine Days of Av Global Community Shidduch Event, August 4-11. Reach out to the women in your community and those nearby to organize/attend community and intercommunity shidduch meetings targeted to the needs of your singles. Contact [email protected] or call 845-323-9041 and provide the following information so the meeting information may be posted on the website: your name, address, phone number and email address; day, date, location and time of meeting; and categories and ages to be presented. Also, indicate whether your contact number and/or email should be posted on the website. Ensure successful attendance by informing friends, neighbors, shuls and nearby communities of your upcoming meeting.
View L’Chaim’s website at www.lchaimshidduch.com or call starting at the end of July through the Nine Days for an expanding list of shidduch meetings and their locations. Maintaining a listing of similar meetings worldwide will enable you to reach out to organizers after the event in order to mix and match.
By Blimi Green
