Since 1997, Jewish dating online services have provided a safe place for young professionals of the Jewish faith to meet and chat online. Some sites are English only, some Hebrew only, some have translation sites available.

In 1999, Rabbi Yaacov Deyo came up with the idea of speed dating, a take on the older Jewish tradition of supervised parties for young Jewish people so that they could meet some one, hopefully hit it off, and not marry outside of their faith. The object during a speed dating session is to meet 10 people in seven minute increments, score them on a card, and the matches are made by the coordinators by matching up the score cards and giving the phone numbers to each party.

Today Jewish people of all ages can get into the online dating scene, as well as speed dating, through joining Jewish online dating services which not only have language specific chat rooms, but sponsor speed dating parties in regional areas.

The biggest and most reputable Jewish online dating site is JDate.com, with over 500,000 members. This site has been around since the beginning (1997) and is one of the leading Hebrew/English dating sites for Jewish people of all ages.

Www.jewishmatch.com and www.youridealdate.com also received excellent reviews. Jewish match caters to all people of Jewish faith--Orthodox, Reformed, or Reconstuction--and is very highly user rated, while your ideal date is very helpful with instructing new users as to how to write their first profiles. Both are confidential (you won't receive any emails unless both parties agree to the contact) and safe.

Jewish mingle.com uses photos rather than profiles for primary contact, but after choosing a few photos, you are directed to the profile and can choose as to whether or not you'd like to pursue a relationship.