Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
A new online dating app marketed at Jewish mums allows them to find potential love matches for their adult sons and daughters.
The Jewish dating app ‘JustKibbitz’ even lets mums pay for their kids’ first date.
JustKibbitz CEO and co-founder Jeffrey Kaplan told The Times of Israel that the app, which is inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community too, is not a marriage matchmaking programme.
One user, Sam Leach, 27, who is doing a PhD in chemical and biological engineering in Chicago, encouraged his mother to sign him up after hearing about it from his married sister.
He said he was curious about who his mum, Jodie Leach, would choose for him.
“I’m already very close with my mum and talk to her about everything, so I figured why not get her to help with dating?
“Plus I think she’ll probably enjoy getting a window into a part of my life that she doesn’t know that much about. It sounds like a bonding experience,” he said.
Suzi Finer from California said she wanted to help her 27-year-old son Ben find a potential life partner.
She said: “He’s been very busy with work and hasn’t been out there looking for dates. And now with COVID young people can’t even meet at parties.
Her son added: “I’m very skeptical about it, but I trust my mum’s intuitions and will see what comes from this.”
Jeffrey Kaplan, 34, said he first came up with the idea for JustKibbitz in 2013 when he was visiting relatives in Florida.
He found out that his mother had created a ‘fake’ account for his brother on the Jdate app, and had been interacting with the women who responded.
Kaplan, who now lives in Asheville in North Carolina, added: “I thought the idea was so funny, then I heard that other mums and aunts were doing it too.
“I realised that maybe there was a market here. After all, couples being set up through friends and family is the oldest way people meet. This just hasn’t become an online thing yet.”
While researching his idea, Kaplan learned that between 65 and 70 percent of Millennials use online dating apps.
He interviewed around 100 people from that the age group and 50 per cent told him they would go on a date with someone recommended by their mother.
A staggering 92 percent said they would go on the date if their mum had already prepaid it.
For now, JustKibbitz is only focussing on the US, UK, Canadian, and Israeli markets, although Kaplan hopes to expand its operations soon.
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