<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"   Niche dating sites exist for a reason: So that birds of a feather can flock together. (See: BeautifulPeople.com, FarmersOnly.com) But rules are meant to be broken. According to Jezebel, a bunch of dudes are trying to get in on the new dating app for lesbians called Dattch. (The lengths guys will go to for girl-on-girl action...) The funny thing is, this phenomenon reminded us something not so strange at all that&amp;#039;s happened among a number of friends: Non-Jews joining JDate. How does it work when a gentile joins JDate? Three non-Jews live to tell the tale: JDate Gentile: Mark, 29, Chicago Actual Religion: Raised Seventh-day Adventist Church Why JDate: &amp;quot;I had enough confidence to sign up for JDate mostly because I had previously been in a long-term relationship with a Jewish girl while I was in college. I learned a lot about the Jewish faith and realized my family&amp;#039;s and my personal values overlapped quite a bit with Jewish values.&amp;quot; Full disclosure: &amp;quot;[When I first joined,] I made it clear that I am not Jewish. I think I marketed myself pretty accurately (I&amp;#039;m lucky to be tall). I think I emphasized how much I like sweatpants, music, reading, cooking, and hiking.&amp;quot; The response: &amp;quot;Most memorable first date was an afternoon date at a popular Chicago bakery. Girl was attractive, seemed nice, good conversation going, and out of nowhere she told me that she will not give blow jobs before marriage. Good to know!?&amp;quot; Success: &amp;quot;I almost blew it on our first date because, just before the date, I got a massage, which made me seem like I was stoned. Furthermore, I remember telling her how resilient I think squirrels are and backing this up with lots of info. I knew she was a very special person after that first date and didn&amp;#039;t sleep much that night. I wrote her an email the following day and secured a second date asap. The rest is history. We&amp;#039;re engaged!&amp;quot; JDate Gentile: Claire, 31, Chicago Actual Religion: No religious affiliation  Why JDate: &amp;quot;My roommate at the time was on the site and seemed to be having some success in meeting eligible bachelors. Key word: eligible. I was a little gun-shy about online dating, so if I could, I wanted to use a trusted source. I found out that you could sign up for JDate as a non-Jewish person.&amp;quot; Full disclosure: &amp;quot;I said that I wasn&amp;#039;t Jewish, but that I was Italian and a lot of the cultural values that I&amp;#039;d observed in my Jewish friends (an emphasis on family and food, for instance) were part of my upbringing as well. So I tried to bridge the gap.&amp;quot; The response: &amp;quot;I never got any backlash that I recall from other women on the site, but I did keep it relatively quiet with friends because I didn&amp;#039;t want female Jewish friends to feel like I was stealing their men. I went on one date that is memorable for many reasons, but one of the funniest is that I seemed to know more about Judaism than he did. Our date happened in late fall, and we were discussing Yom Kippur and the Jewish holidays, and he seemed to be unclear on which holidays celebrate which events in the Jewish tradition. I didn&amp;#039;t want to push too hard on it during the date in case I was wrong (this wasn&amp;#039;t MY culture, after all), but he seemed to think that Yom Kippur celebrated the migration of the Israelites through the dessert. I may not be Jewish, but I believe the holiday he was searching for is Passover.&amp;quot; Success: &amp;quot;I ended up removing myself from JDate (as I have from other online dating sites) because in the end, I don&amp;#039;t think that online dating is a good match for my personality. I&amp;#039;ve been happily living with my boyfriend of two years. Neither of us identify with one organized religion. We&amp;#039;re more spiritual than religious. JDate Gentile: Laura, 32, Los Angeles Actual Religion: Raised Methodist, currently Buddhist Light Why JDate: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve always found Jewish guys really attractive in addition to being (more than average) very intelligent, cultured, and often really funny. So, this seemed like a great place to find them. Also, because of my towering height, (I&amp;#039;m nearly six feet), being able to sort by height was helpful. Take a minority population (Jewish guys) and make it even tinier (Jewish guys taller than me); for those kind of odds, online only made sense.&amp;quot;. Full disclosure: &amp;quot;I did have a disclaimer at the end (which I tried to make cute) that while I was in fact not Jewish, I thought Jewish guys are great and would be happy to meet some.&amp;quot; The response: &amp;quot;It was kind of tepid \u2014 not tons of emails, and one guy that I really liked and wrote a really thoughtful, clever note to responded very kindly but said that he was actually looking for a Jewish girl, which is totally fair of course.&amp;quot; Success: &amp;quot;I did go out with one guy who was a little older, and he was nice but a little awkward. I got a few dates out of JDate but decided it wasn&amp;#039;t for me ultimately. I&amp;#039;m still dating, mostly guys I meet through friends.&amp;quot; Moral of the story? You don&amp;#039;t have to be a member of the club to strike it rich in the relationship department. That, and the fact that tall Jewish men are basically unicorns. Want more from Jessica? Follow her on Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a11976/non-jews-on-jdate/?click=cos_new>