The Katamon single scene seems to be split into two – Anglo and Israeli – with for the most part, surprisingly very little interaction between the two groups. As an American with limited Hebrew skills, the Katamon Anglo scene is much easier for me to break into, both for dating and for making friends.

Nevertheless, when someone suggested setting me up with an Israeli, I decided to give it a try.

Yes, the conversation was definatley not as natural as it would have been in English. In Hebrew, I have to think much more about how I’m saying something, not just what I am saying.

But I don’t think that was the main problem with the date.

Like many Americans who I have gone out with, he was boring. I literally do not think we had a single non-generic conversation. Instead, we discussed the weather, our parents professions, where we davan on Shabbat, etc…

The only interesting part of the date turned out to be the fact that we were speaking in Hebrew. At least there was something original about it.

So, I decided somehwere in the middle to think of the evening as a productive if dull ulpan lesson instead of another blah date.

Would I date another Israeli? Sure. Maybe it could even turn into an interesting ulpan lesson.

I met last nights date on dosidate, a dating site for religious singles living in Israel. After a few short email exchanges, I agreed to go out with him and gave him my phone number.

For awhile we played phone tag, which is pretty normal, except that instead of normal messages he spoke on my machine for ten minutes about how amazing Israel, how spiritual the kotel is, blah blah blah. I decided to pick up my life to move to a different country and consider myself a pretty idealistic person, but even I had to delete the messages half way through because they were so long and rambling.

On his fourth message (note – we still had yet to speak on the phone let alone meet in person) he began by calling me “sarbear”?!

At this point I was pretty sure he was probably not my soul mate, but he sent me a sms yesterday morning if I wanted to go out later in the day. I was free so I thought I might as well meet him, since I had already agreed to the date and at the very least I figured it should make for an amusing evening.

While trying to determine a location to meet he asked me where I work. I answered in town. His response – “we must be soulsisters“.

And then for our date we went to a Sheva Bracha.

Riiiight.

The Katamon Single Scene…

I just joined the the Katamon single scene after leaving the Upper West Side single scene.

So far it seems like there are some differences between the Katamon singles scene in Jerusalem versus the Upper West Side singles scene in New York.

However, both are places where Jewish singles gather and spend a large chunk of their time talking/thinking/participating in dating.