By Anna Rahaman
Jewish and Israeli-owned restaurants in New York City appear to have a new off-menu offering: introducing Jewish singles to one another.
“I feel like going to a restaurant — whether kosher, Jewish- or Israeli-owned — I’m more likely to meet someone who is pro-Israel,” Skye Ostreicher, 35, said.
Ostreicher, founder of the storytelling agency In the Room Media, is planning to celebrate her birthday over dinner at Port Sa’id, the Manhattan restaurant of Israeli chef Eyal Shani, in part because she sees it as somewhere to meet people who share values similar to hers.
“I’ve always thought the apps were strange,” she said, of dating mobile sites.
“Especially after the pandemic, people want real conversations with real people.”
Some Jewish- and Israeli-owned eateries across the Big Apple have become gathering places, where young Jews meet friends, build community and, at times, mates.
The apparent trend comes as some young adults express fatigue with dating apps and seek more opportunities for in-person interaction.
For some Jewish New Yorkers, restaurants can also provide a setting where a degree of shared cultural identity is already understood.
Various restaurants have become popular gathering spots for young Jewish New Yorkers, and although the eateries aren’t marketing themselves as dating destinations, staff and patrons say that they have witnessed first dates and conversations between strangers.
One cafe’s marketing director has seen the restaurant’s Manhattan and Brooklyn locations become gathering places for young Jewish New Yorkers.
“It’s a real gathering spot for young Jewish New Yorkers,” she said. “People come back knowing they’ll likely run into someone they know.”
Customers sometimes initiate conversations with people at neighboring tables, she has found.
The restaurant’s staff has also heard from customers who formed relationships there.
For Adrien Lesser, a Manhattan-based political publicist, restaurants can double as modern communal gathering spaces.
“Especially Jewish young people after Oct. 7, there’s this feeling of togetherness and wanting to be with people in person,” she said.
Lesser also sees the trend as an extension of longstanding Jewish traditions centered on food and community.
“We were raised on Shabbat dinners, Passover and the High Holidays,” she said. “Those experiences have always revolved around gathering around a table.”
That communal atmosphere can also make dating more straightforward than the open-ended choices presented by dating apps, according to Lesser.
“Dating apps give you endless choices,” she said. “Being in these spaces makes things a little easier.”
Rabbi Mark Wildes, founder and director of the Manhattan Jewish Experience, doesn’t think that the connection between Jewish communal spaces and dating is new.
“It also depends on the age. Younger people want to be social,” the rabbi said.
“They don’t care as much that they are meeting a specific person as a boyfriend or girlfriend, but in their late 20s and 30s, they are becoming more marriage-minded.”
Manhattan Jewish Experience’s programming illustrates how social interaction can develop around Jewish communal activities without dating being the primary purpose, according to the rabbi.
“The nice thing here is that when people are coming, they are not just coming to meet somebody. They came for a class,” he said.
“But they know when they go there from 7:30 to 8, there’s going to be sushi, wine and mingling, and even after.”