Previous to the success of Jewish dating personals, single Jewish women and single Jewish men who were looking for love, marriage and a soul mate, would look within their circle of friends or at their synagogue or through another Jewish organization. But today, Jewish internet dating sites have taken over the role of Jewish matchmakers for the Jewish singles community. These Jewish relationship sites offer an easy, comfortable way for single Jews to meet more Jewish singles than ever before. And what’s nice is that they don’t need to give up meeting Jewish singles in their community; they can let Jewish online dating be a nice complement.

Jewish internet dating sites are also invaluable resources for Jewish singles who are too shy for traditional social networking. Photo profiles and email make introductions and breaking the ice with new Jewish singles easy. Also, since most Jewish singles are busy professionals, with high-paying jobs run by hectic schedules, online Jewish dating sites offer a place for single Jewish men and single Jewish women to go to find Jewish singles on their own time, be it from home or office. The cost is relatively low as well when you look at what Jewish singles usually spend on finding people to date. Most online Jewish dating sites offer free search and free dating profiles.

It is also important to note that true compatibility, friendship and chemistry can only be discovered in person, so Jewish dating online doesn’t take anything away from the human experience. It’s just an introduction tool.

Most Jewish singles would love to find someone with whom they can share their heritage, background, traditions, culture and beliefs. And within the Jewish community, there are so many variations. Luckily, there are also plenty of variations when it comes to Jewish dating sites.

JDate.com is definitely the leader when it comes to Jewish dating online. It’s the largest and most popular Jewish dating site and has been around since the beginning of online dating. And as JDate claims, everyone knows someone who met on JDate – whether they’re college students, recent graduates, young Jewish professionals, seasoned professionals, divorced Jews, widowed Jews, Jewish single parents, or Jewish seniors. JDate is so popular that it has even had a play (and soon to be movie) based on it -- “Jewtopia,” and terms like “JDating” and “JDater” have entered the common vernacular.

In addition to JDate, a large number of other successful Jewish dating sites have emerged, giving Jewish women and Jewish men a wider variety of places to connect, find love and find romance. Jewish dating sites cater to many different niches ranging from observance-related sites to age group-related sites to numerous gay and lesbian Jewish dating sites. Observance-related Jewish dating sites include Orthodate.com, Frumster.com, and Urbantraditional.com, which caters to both traditional and orthodox Jewish singles. Jewish seniors can be found cavorting and kvetching over at JewishSeniorsDating.com, while bloggers and singles interested in Jewish chat can be found at Jmerica.com. Young urban Jews might like Jcafe.com, while single Jewish professionals might be interested in executivejewishdating.com, where well-established, well-educated, serious Jewish professionals start online and then get a personal counselor to help them find their perfect Jewish match. And if you’re on a budget, you might try Jewishfriends.com, which offers 100 percent free services, including free Jewish dating and free search. SawYouAtSinai.com combines Jewish matchmaking with online Jewish dating so Jewish singles can choose their own Jewish matchmakers who then help them to choose and find Jewish matches. Jewish singles interested in Jewish singles travel are also in luck with sites like JDate.com and SawYouAtSinai.com offering exclusively Jewish travel.

The beauty of online dating is the search capabilities, which also allow the broader, all-encompassing Jewish dating sites like JDate.com to offer built-in niche services where you can search by age, education level or how often someone keeps kosher. Other broad Jewish dating sites include Jlove.com, Jewishmingle.com, Jewishfriendfinder, Jcafe.com, Jmatch.com, Jsingles.com, Jewishcafe.com and Totallyjewishdating.com. Generic dating sites like Match.com and True.com also allow you to search for single Jews.

Basically, you never know where your beshert might turn up, and that’s why Jewish singles often join free at a variety of Jewish dating sites to expand their options. Clever, because most Jewish sites offer some kind of free search and free dating service, at least as an introduction. You can search through the Jewish singles on various sites and then get active on the sites where you find the Jewish men or Jewish women that interest you most. It’s kind of like clothes shopping. You usually don’t just go to one store to get everything. You have several shops that match your style, and you browse through the various stores until you find what you’re looking for.