Weekend February 10, 2001

Speed Dating

The perfect romance and what we will do to find it. You can always hit the singles scene, the clubs, the bars, and even the gym. Or take a risk on a blind date. But now there's a new way to find a great mate.

It's called speed dating. In a nutshell: An eight-minute date. At the end of eight minutes, you will hear the bell ring, and it is time to move on to the next table. Just enough time to size up your date and see if he or she is the right one for you.

Sound far-fetched? Not to hundreds who are giving it a try in 15 cities. EXTRA was at a recent speed dating event held in a Los Angeles coffee shop. And you might be surpised how it all began.

Yaacov Deyo is an orthodox rabbi from Los Angeles. Concerned about the number of Jews that were marrying outside the faith, last year he came up with the idea of speed dating. He says, "The purpose of speed dating from our perspective is to try to encourage young Jewish people to marry other young Jewish people."

That appealed to 40-year-old Bruce Bernstein. He's had his share of bad blind dates and liked the idea of meeting a number of women in a short amount of time. He says, "If you are at dinner with someone and right away you don't connect, you are there for an hour and a half with this person, coffee, you have a cup of coffee and it is not connecting and off you go."

And twenty-six-year-old Rebecca Gail tried bars, even a Jewish Internet site. She didn't think twice about giving speed dating a try. She says, "I know right off the bat if there is a connection - when you look into somebody's eyes do you like that person or not."

So EXTRA decided to follow Bruce and Rebecca to a speed dating event. At the ring of the bell, the dating begins with those awkward first questions. But there are ground rules. First names only, no phone numbers can be exchanged and to avoid making snap judgements, no talk of careers allowed. When times up, both parties indicate whether they're interested in pursuing a more formal date.

Then the men are off rotating tables to the next woman. Seven times in all. No one knows whether a match has been made until the next day when the cards are tallied and organizers call with the good news and the phone numbers.