By COLlive reporter
When Brooklyn entrepreneur Eli Ostreicher was becoming frustrated of the tedious dating process, he wondered if he could use his online business acumen to somehow create another option for marriage-oriented Jewish singles.
“Online dating used to be considered very cliche in the Jewish world and it was generally not something that people were willing to share with the general public,” says Ostreicher, CEO of Regal Wings, a travel company specializing in First and Business Class travel.
“But this is 2013, and we are a society that embraces technology so thoroughly in every aspect of our lives. What reason could there possibly be to not incorporate technology into the world of dating?”
Joining forces with a tech savvy Paul Ostering and another longtime friend, Ostreicher set out to create an uncluttered, uncomplicated dating website that would cater to frum singles of all ages and communities.
The result was the creation of HareiAt.com, a revolutionary new website that was 3 years in the making.
“We are truly one of a kind,” explains Ostreicher. “Harei At is easy to use and is literally foolproof. Even someone who isn’t computer savvy will have no problem navigating the site.”
He said that as a strictly marriage minded website, they have a zero tolerance policy “for anything that is remotely inappropriate, not only giving our users a sense of security but also keeping Harei At a high end and classy site.”
Finding a match at HareiAt.com is a quick and easy process as members are encouraged to be as specific as possible, both in filling out their own profiles and in selecting search criteria in what is termed the “Beshert Search.”
Members specify what level of religious observance best suits their needs, age range, location, whether or not they have a preference for someone who has never been previously married, what ethnic background they feel would appeal to them most and any foreign language requests.
Members can also specify a particular level of education, their preference for a smoker versus a non-smoker, a height range and a general physical description for their potential match.
“The feedback from our members has been incredibly overwhelming,” reported Ostreicher, noting that the website has received the most volume from advertising on community news service COLlive.com.
“After pay-per-click ads for Harei At on Facebook and Google where we spent well over $30,000 per month, COLlive.com has been our most powerful source for leads, signups and users,” he said.
And in what might be an indication to a larger phenomena of frum singles and parents trying to find other resources for shidduchim, a reported 2,237 users have signed up at Harei At under the category of Chassidic-Chabad.
Ostreicher said the most of these users are the singles themselves, but there were also friends, parents and siblings who signed up on behalf of others.
Many of them said they were from the Brooklyn area but there were also “plenty” from New Jersey, California, Canada, England as well as Brazil and Australia.
“I understand that we need to make the site feel as Chabad; and actually it really is,” he said. “In fact, Chabad is now so popular on the site that we are planning on a special sub-site dedicated to Chabad singles only.”
Harei At has been winning accolades from singles worldwide, not only in the New York metropolitan area but also from as far away as Buenos Aires, Antwerp, Tel Aviv and Sydney.
With hundreds of dates, as well as 4 engagements to its credit in just 5 short months, the site is aiming to become the flagship of Jewish online dating.
“In addition to our full team of designers, marketers and administrators, we have 3 full time developers who literally spend all day, every day, focusing on improving Harei At,” the CEO said.
“We intend to keep on growing and keep on improving and providing the best possible site for our users so that one day soon, they too can become another Harei At success story.”
Join today at HareiAt.com
It never lets me log in!
Great idea but site is impossible to navigate
and never accepts my password.
there are some people that does not want to go through the shidduch scene
not everyone wants to meet someone through a shidduch
WUUUUUUUT?? THIS WEB SITE WILL DO ALL US USELESS SHADCHONIM OUT OF BUSINESS!!!
this should be mandatory for everyone!
keep up the good work, glad to see that there are people working to try and end the shidduch crisis.
with the situation the way it is today, with many single boys and girls and the numbers rising each year, it is critical that even more people step up to the plate and actually do somehting.
looks like the link crashed the site 🙂
B”H impossible to load