Group therapy in a blog.
Mars & Venus Go to Shul: The New Jewish Singles Blog Carnival
JDaters Anonymous is pleased to announce a call for entries to our new Carnival:
Mars & Venus Go to Shul, the Carnival for, by, and about Jewish singles.
Submissions now being accepted in four categories:
Mars & Venus: Men and women try to understand each other
You Don’t Look Like Your Picture: Everything online dating (no real
profile names or numbers, please…)
Separate Seating: The religious life of the single Jew
Apocrypha: Everything else outside the canon
DEADLINE for the premiere, January 2 issue is December 30.
Have more questions? The M&VGTS FAQ Sheet has your answers…
The M&VGTS FAQ
Q: What’s a Carnival?
A: Are you serious? You’re a blogger and you don’t know what a Carnival is? Basically it’s a recap/rundown of posts from different blogs on a certain subject or theme. Need more? Go here and read this.
Q: Esther, why start a Carnival now?
A: Life’s a Carnival already. And being single sometimes seems like a Ferris Wheel, with highs and lows, but ultimately no progress. Having stumbled on the metaphor, I viewed it as a sign. Plus, with a new year coming and with My Urban Kvetch getting lots of play, I thought JDaters Anonymous hosting a Carnival would be the perfect way to start 2006.
Q: I’m not religious. I once pureed a Big Mac with a glass of milk and dipped my shrimp in it. I go to shul on High Holidays or not at all. Actually, I’m not even sure what shul is….Can I submit?
A: Absolutely. If you’re Jewish, and your Jewish life in any way impacts the way you live single or date, you’re welcome to submit a post to this Carnival. Of course, we will have to circumcise you. (Even if you’re a woman. We have our ways. Mostly through metaphor.)
Q: I’m not single, but I have ideas and thoughts to share on the nature of single life, dating, and the impact of religion thereon. Can I submit?
A: Thereon? Are you from another century? Who talks like that? But seriously…since when have I ever denied a fellow Jew a platform? Submit your post for review and if it’s entirely inappropriate, you’ll hear from me.
Q: Do you really need four categories?
A: Come on: four cups of wine is more fun than one cup of wine, so four categories is–heck, you do the math. Because we all know I’m not going to.
Q: Did you know that the word Islam means “submission”, so when you’re calling for submissions, you’re really calling for “Islams”?
A: Um, no. In fact, maybe anyone calling for “Islams” is actually calling for “submissions to a blogcarnival,” didja ever think of that?
Q: Hey wait a minute…if this is the first time you’re announcing this Carnival, how can there already be a list of Frequently Asked Questions?
A: Very good, you’re very clever. Now go back to your own blog, select a post and submit it to me via email at esther.kustanowitz at gmail or via the handy dandy submission form at the BlogCarnival site…deadline is December 30, so we can ring in the new year with a brand new Carnival…
I have a thought, not even a full fledged post, but an important idea that came to this year when I davened at Hadar for Yom Kippur. Although Hadar is egalitarian, my thoughts were still distracted by all the men around me… because I couldn’t figure out if they were single or coupled! And the ones who were coupled, well, I don’t need to see couples holding hands and staring in each other’s eyes, especially on Yom Kippur! SO, what I propose for the frustrated single egals among us, is a separate seating area for couples and singles, an esras ekhad? (Pardon my non-existent Hebrew). A curtain, a something that will put an end to the confusion and acknowledge the REAL reason many of us come to shul in the first place! (to mack on cute jewish boys, duh!)
Rokhi, I don’t know if this practice caries over to egalitarian shuls, but in Orthodox shuls the maried men wear a Tallit, while singles traditionally do not. Of course, I myself am divorced, and still wear my Tallit– but I’m not necessarily trying to attract anyone from my shul.
You could always look into T-shirts, or color-coded yarmulkas?
Royk, you are missing the point. When you are fixated and obsessed with something, you never get it. This is the way of the universe. When you are doing something else and least expecting, ‘it’, then ‘it’ happens.
In your example, don’t go to shule hoping to meet someone. Go to shule, hoping to meet, the Hashem, and in the process, you have time, volunteer to help the shule in some way. In this way, you will become known, people will like you as they get to know you, and in this way, introductions can be made.