New dating site offers Jewish networking

By PAUL HAIST

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An Israeli-born woman who describes herself as a secular Jew but who would find it “foreign to marry a non-Jew” has launched a new Jewish dating Web site that is really Jewish.

Alexandra Weiss is co-founder and CEO of Yenta911.com.

An IDF veteran and a software engineer for almost a decade, Weiss worked for firms in Jerusalem, London and Boston before moving to the Northwest to take a position in Beaverton with C-cor, which was later acquired by Arris, companies that provide equipment and solutions to the cable industry. While here, she also studied at the University of Portland where she earned a certificate in financial planning. Today, she lives in San Francisco.

A recently divorced mother of two, Weiss said that as a newly single woman she turned to the popular Web site jdate.com to look for new opportunities.

“It’s not Jewish,” she said of jdate. “It’s just a dating site filled with Jews.”

Weiss is worried about the future of Jews in America where their Jewish birth rate is 1.4 per family, significantly below the replacement rate of 2.1 per family, according the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Study—figures Weiss carries around in her head.

“I don’t promote marriage inside the faith, although that is preferred,” she said. “I want to promote Jewish culture so it will be here for generations.”

Even though she probably wouldn’t do it herself, she said she supports intermarriage “as long as their culture will be Jewish.”

That’s what she promotes at Yenta911.com, Jewish culture, and she does so by creating a site that is not only a place to meet another Jew, but is also a place for Jewish social interaction.

As Weiss states up front on her Web site, “Yenta911 allows its members to start a blog, download their favorite music, videos and pictures, and even chat on video live. We made a conscious decision to move away from the restricted environment of traditional dating Web sites and towards the social networking style. We learned a great deal from the evolution of social networks such as Facebook and Myspace, and our members will enjoy taking advantage of the freedom we provide to create something beautiful.”

Users of the social networks Facebook and Twitter can take advantage of a special offer from Yenta911. Yenta911’s presence on both those social networking sites currently offers a free 30-day membership on the new Jewish dating site. Find Yenta911 on either of the social networking sites to get the necessary promo code to enter at Yenta911.