Making matches from Perth to NZ

IF you are single, reading this article just might change your life.

After the unexpected success of last year’s Jewish singles weekend in Melbourne, organiser Debbie Katz is looking forward to an even bigger turnout at this year’s event, to be held in Sydney from August 5-7.

“[Last year] one lady from New Zealand met a man from Melbourne, they’re getting married, a girl from Melbourne met a man from Sydney and they’re getting married, and another couple, also from interstate, are getting married,” Katz said.

This year, participants have already signed up from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and even as far afield as Perth and New Zealand.

“You just don’t know who will introduce you to who,” she said. “So you have to leave all your options open, come along with an open mind and just have a great time. And let divine intervention take it from there.”

The weekend will begin with a three-course kosher Shabbat meal, complete with ushers who will help people with introductions.

Festivities will move to an up-scale bar on Saturday night, where singles will be able to mingle. Finally, a breakfast on Sunday will give one last opportunity to find like-minded potential partners, with all three events to be held within walking distance of the suggested hotel.

Passionate about preserving Jewish continuity, Katz said she has been conducting singles events for 15 years.

“I started doing them in my apartment, where I invited six men and six women, and people just recommended friends and the database grew,” she said. “And then the numbers got too large to keep doing this in my apartment and then I hired synagogue halls and expanded in that way.”

She organised last year’s weekend after overhearing a woman say she intended to date a non-Jewish man because “she was sick of seeing the same people at the same functions”.

“I just thought that that was silly, and I thought what if I take my group down to Melbourne and try and get some new faces for her to choose from,” she said.

“And when I sent the flyer out to other states I was totally swamped with the phenomenal response I got.”

Enquiries: Debbie 0411 784 493; dkatzchai@yahoo.com.au.

GARETH NARUNSKY

Event organiser Debbie Katz