What's New

We're going to try and start refreshing the site again slowly. First step will be slowing validating and cleaning up dead links, before adding new content (of which there is quite a bit piled up in queue). Since the primary site maintainer's time is very limited these days, this will probably take quite a while.

This site hasn't really been updated since 2007. Frankly, the maintainer has been busy and burned out. But, he does have quite a backlog of fixes, updates and new links. So - maybe he'll slowly introduce them over the coming year. Yes - we are reading your e-mails. We're just burned out.

Added some additional shidduch-related sites, including one for Spanish speaking observant Jews, to the Shidduchim Sites and Organizations section.

Also, added a Jerusalem Post article interviewing "End the Madness" founder, Chananya Weissman, to the Writings about Shidduchim page.

Added a new section on Communication Tips and Techniques.

Also, updated the Jewish Genetic Diseases and Screening Information page with information about some hospitals that provide genetic screening services, and removed references to Jewish Family Services (which no longer does genetic screening).

Added an additional therapist to the Counseling and Dating Support page.

Added some additional date ideas to the Ideas for Dates page.

I remain woefully behind on updates, corrections, etc. I do have a lot of them all queued up, though.

Did finally get around to updating the Invei Hagefen news section, with information about their new Shidduch Helpline service.

Also, updated the Writings about Shidduchim section with some Jonathan Rosenblum articles originally from Mishpacha magazine, that were re-printed in the Cross Currents blog.

Additionally, finally added "The Frum Rules" and "Dating Secrets" to the Recommended Reading and Listening section of the site.

We've been very busy and site updates are extremely backed up. Hopefully, the development team will find some time after the holidays to catch up on all the overdue updates and link fixes.

We did update the Jewish Genetic Diseases and Screening Information page, with some updated information provided by Dor Yeshorim, and added a new article about Dor Yeshorim to the page.

Created a dedicated section of dating resources for special needs shidduchim / singles with medical issues on the Shidduchim Sites and Organizations page.

Modified the Segulos page to be more accessible to people with disabilties, such as visual impairments. The English text of the prayers are now accessible by clicking on the images of the English text. Also, added some additional segulos and links.

My time for site maintenance has been much reduced of late. I'm still single and trying to actively dating more determinedly has demanded more of my time. Also, my employer appears to have started blocking ports and sites on the Internet, meaning I can't update the site nearly as easily from work (during lunch), as I used to do. This has especially affected the Events section, which I used to update as soon as I heard of something.

There are definitely some accumulated dead links that need sweeping and cleaning, but this process may take a bit. First, I need to run a recursive dead link scan and then find time not just removing some links, but actively finding better replacements. This is still a one person show, show please hang in there.

On the drawing board are plans to add/enhance sections dealing with hospitality for singles, since several visitors have asked me to add a section advertising that they like to host single guests. I also hope to build up the section regarding dating hospitality (esp. in New York) for travelling, shidduch-dating singles.

Add some helpful article links to shadchanim page. Began re-organization of the shidduch writings page. It's now broken down into more orderly categories. Hopefully, will find time soone to massive layout overhaul of site to improve the navigation and display. In short - the site's information has outgrown my original bare bones graphical design and plain text organizational scheme. Most significantly, through, finally replaced that hideous glowing green logo with something a bit less nauseating.

Added shadchanim in the Pennsylvania area to list of Mid-Atlantic area shadchanim. Also added section for shidduch related multimedia. Included additional resources to Counseling and Dating Support page.

Due to a construction accidentally cutting my cable lines, I am off-line for a while, and have been unable to make updates to the site. There are several pending on a number of pages, especially the Events page.

Added additional Greater Washington area shadchanim to the database and re-arranged the shadchanim listings by region.

Began major changes to Events system, to reduce maintenance. The Events page is now a dynamic page, with a mySQL database back-end. For now, this means that old events will automatically expire. It also means that I will no longer have to hand code every event in HTML, meaning I should be able to get events on-line and updated MUCH more quickly. It also means that some other enhancements can be done in the future, such as enabling searching of events by various criteria.

If you experience any bugs or issues, please contac the Webmaster at webmaster@shidduchim.info.

Added contact information for two new Baltimore-based organizations for singles: Single Orthodox Females Together (S.O.F.T.) and Segluah. As far as I know, S.O.F.T. is exclusively for women. Now, I just have to find the time and talent to fix the graphical, plain-text nightmare that is the Shidduch Site's layout. :-)

Due to an unexpected crisis (namely, my automobile finally giving up the ghost and taking a one way trip to automobile Gan Eden), I've been a bit lax about updating the site with events and such lately. However, I've finally made some overdue updates to the Events page, as well as, enhancing the segulos part of the Shidduch Theme Divrei Torah page, including contact information of the Simchas Esther Hachnosas Kallah Fund, for those who wish to donate to this tzedakah segulah.

Modified layout on Events page, to allow easier navigation to entire page, which has grown considerably and continues to grow. In the future, this page may be broken into two pages, one for events described here and another for events listed and described externally.

Also, have begun adding tool-tips to various parts of pages. When the cursor is placed over content with additional information contained in a tooltip, the cursor will change as follows:

Place cursor over this text

Additional information about the subject will then appear as a tooltip. An implementation of this can be found on the Phone-Based Event Information listing on the Events page.

Set up a new sub-domain to support the Single's Orthodox Networking Group (S.O.N.G.) at http://singles.shidduchim.info.

Site is presently a bit sparse, but will support weblogs, event information and other information of interest to regional singles wanting to connect, make friends, etc.

Also, re-organized main page layout a bit, to make things easier to locate.

Added section about Jewish genetic diseases and testing resources, as well as, a page dedicated to general shidduch-relevant announcements that don't qualify as"events".

Updated events page to be easier to navigate and locate information quickly.

Also added form for submission of new shadchanim.

Updated various pages with new information. Finally populated much of the Baltimore section of the dating ideas section. Future plans for this section include breaking it up by "types" of dating ideas, rather than just a splat list. May also add some additional information about the generic dating ideas (such as names of sample locations for a date idea, it's phone numbers, hours and cost).

Fixed several configuration problems with the discussion forums. Hopefully, they will now work correctly.

Entered shadchan list into database, to enable easier querying in future and support enhanced functions including searching/sorting, visitor submission of new shadchans, as well as, rating of shadchans and comments/feedback on shadchanim. Also corrected several entries in the process and added additional information. System now has about 40 shadchanim. Hope to add more in the Silver Spring, D.C., Virginia and Pennsylvania areas, as they are submitted.

Forums are available again. Added some icons to help distinguish between Orthodox observant themed groups/sites and ones with a mixed membership/focus. Added segulos and tefillos, and a guide on how to create a synagogue shidduch committee (under "Writings about Shidduchim").

Moved to formal hosting at http://www.shidduchsite.com. Also in the process of pointing http://www.shidduchim.info here, as well. For now, forums are temporarily unavailable.

Configured and installed discussion forums.

Added shul web sites to events page. Updated S.N.O.W. contact info and cleaned dead links.

Added introduction to main page. Greatly enhaced shadchanim page. Added some new site links.