I joined Jdate Because I’m a Hot Commodity

With both parents Jewish, I figured I would be a must-have nice Jewish Girl within the Denver community. About a year and a half ago, I assumed that if I was honest in my profile, put up hot photos of myself, and interacted well with my potential matches, that Jewish men would flock. My strategy seemed to work, and within a few weeks of joining the site, I started dating a man who was really into me as a person, but particularly drawn to me because I’m Jewish.

It wasn’t until Channukah that I encountered a Jewish dating identity crisis. Growing up, Channukah in my family was all about the presents and fighting. Celebrating Channukah last year with my date proved to me that I just might not be the hot Jewish commodity my date thought I was.

I did not know any Hebrew Channukah prayers, and felt awkward and entertained when he sang them by himself. Here I am, feeling all Jewish-cool, and I couldn’t even represent with a basic Channukah prayer. I had my epiphany on the last night of Channukah, when I got a sad face from my date when it was noticed that my menorah had no melted wax from the night before. My date caught me!! When alone the night before, I didn’t light the menorah. I felt bad, and knew that it wasn’t because I looked like I was a bad Jewish girl.

I felt bad because I realized that I identified with the Jewish race, but not much with the religion, as my date did. To continue being that hot Jewish commodity on Jdate, I learned that I first have to be honest in understanding how I identify with Judaism before I can share it with anybody else.