Dating game at the CJL

I spritzed on Giorgio Armani cologne. I fixed my hair and twisted and turned in front of the mirror. I looked hot, decidedly hot, and I made my way to the Center for Jewish Life. I entered the office where a few council members sat waiting for the speed-dating event to commence.

An active member at the CJL approached me and commanded me to sit down. Perhaps in my delusions, she was flirting when she commented on my cologne. "My brother wears it too. It's too sexy for him . . . it's dashing," she admitted. I smiled smugly.

I attended the speed dating with a curiosity engendered by the advertisements that had been circulating around campus.

The emails for the event promised it was "costless, and priceless," though there was some joking undertone to meeting a mother's wishes of finding a Jewish lover and meeting "the one."

"It not about breeding Jewish babies," Sarah Bassin clarified. "It's about coming to meet other people."

This first ever speed-dating event for the CJL boasted 35 male sign-ups and 25 female sign-ups, though there were some walk-ins and no-shows. Most participants were Jewish, though there was a Roman Catholic girl and a non-Jewish girl with a Jewish grandfather.

The females sat in circle of chairs in Wilf Sanctuary, and the males sat on an inner circle of chairs to face the females. The meetings between partners lasted a mere three minutes before the men moved clockwise to a new partner.

I wandered into Wilf, the main sanctuary at the CJL, 15 minutes before the 8 p.m. starting time. The room was populated by some guys in popped collars gazing at their navels or nothing in particular. Some guys told hookup stories, trying to relive past glory to shake off the current anxiety.

As the stage was set for the event, Will Scharf '08 and Robby Katz '08 became the Shakespearian fools for the event — hiding in a veil of humor, but revealing truth with eloquence and perspicacity.

The comedic twosome said the selection of girls was "awesome."

Right before the dating began, I asked Scharf about his expectation. "I hate to be mean, but they are pretty high right now." I look at him quizzically; he retorted with a poker face.

Katz said, "I just want Will to get lucky."

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At this time people moved away from the cookies and soda and began to take their seats. Labeled with nametags, everyone's identity was available; no one could hide.

"Let the speed dating begin," Linsay Tintenfass '06, social chair on the CJL Board, said in a voice usually associated with the phrase "gentlemen, start your engines." Perhaps either would have been appropriate.

Most participants took the event as an opportunity to meet some friends. People discussed academic interests, extracurricular activities, common acquaintances and life stories.

Girls were given pink sheets of paper with open lines on which to write their date's name and the opportunity to list whether or not he should contact her.

After one three-minute session, time was called. I switched seats to sit down to a girl who immediately excused herself. "I have to pee," she said. I was left to question how my approach had gone wrong and what my new cologne of choice would be.

Though the dating element became the subtext for the event, most people were motivated to meet some interesting people.

Communications Chair on the CJL Board Nathaniel Fintz '06 spoke of this event as a landmark for the social capabilities of the CJL. "This is an awesome event . . . I think this shows that the CJL can give students what they want and be an exciting and fun place for Jews on campus," he said.

In fact, it was with the initiative of a freshman that this event was planned.

Tintenfass described the conception of the idea. "The Saturday before school started, Vitaliy [Elbert '08] said, 'do you have services,' at one of the meetings . . . we put the idea into action," she said.

Elbert commented on his personal perspective of how the idea was conceived. "It was the first day at the CJL for orientation, and we spoke about the upcoming holidays. I suggested this event because dating is such an integral element of Judaism," he said. "It just seemed strange that dating was not included in the scope of activities at the CJL."

Scharf and Katz felt lucky after such enlightening social engagements. Inspired, they left the sanctuary and crossed Washington Road. Turning around, they gave each other a complicit look and said simultaneously, "The night is young and so are we."

A CJL member looked satisfied with the evening. In my delusions, she took another whiff of my cologne and summarized the event with some appropriate Yiddish: "People took it for what it was . . . not too seriously. They kibitzed, some shvitzed, they noshed, and it was done."