We met in shul — at the right time for us
FREELANCE JOURNALIST Jo Weitzman, 40, married accountant Joel, 49, two years ago. “When I was in my late 20s, I went on a few singles holidays and weekends,” she recalls. “One was a ski trip, run by an Israeli company and I made a lot of friends — but there was no romance. These friends introduced me to the alternative minyan at Raleigh Close [Hendon United Synagogue]. That’s how I met Joel, 10 years later.
“We’d both been going to the minyan for years and knew each other by sight, but no more than that. Then one day I was waiting for the kiddush — we’d heard there would be a good one that day as there was a barmitzvah in the main shul. I was talking to friends, they knew Joel, he came over and we started chatting. After Shabbat he sent me a Facebook message asking me out on a date and I thought it was worth accepting. Six months later we got engaged and six months after that we were married.
“The funny thing is that when I joined the minyan, it was known as a place for singles. But in 10 years it’s become more of a family community. There’s nothing formal the shul does to help singles meet — there are Friday night dinners, but not specifically for singles. Having been to some Friday night dinners, it’s still hard to meet people. You tend to stick with your friends. I once went on a singles weekend to Portugal. There must have been around 100 people there but I ended up only talking to people I knew.”
She adds: “I had signed up with a shadchan [match-maker] but she hardly ever found me anyone to meet. The funny thing was that the evening we told our parents we were getting engaged, she called up with an introduction for me.
I’d turned down a blind date with Joel a few years before. But I don’t regret that. We met at the right time for us.”