JSwipe is Tinder for Jews.
Like the poorly received jCrush, the app provides a way for the tribe to stay isolated and date internally—a chic way for our traditions to stay relevant.
It makes the popular but swipe-clumsy Jewish dating site JDate completely obsolete. Plus, JSwipe is much easier to set up. It has distance preferences just like Tinder, and it allows gay Jews to find other gay Jews.
It doesn’t, however, verify that the person you’re communicating with is Jewish. But then again, is that truly possible? People can claim they’re Jewish in real life and fool even your Jewish grandparents—or Birthright Israel administrators. Tinder is also full of liars, so no difference.
Appropriately, JSwipe’s UI is littered with Jewish symbolism.
The app’s not without its flaws. It’s “really poorly engineered, often freezing and crashing while people’s names and faces keep getting matched up,” says serial JSwiper Liana Rosenberg. “On the plus side, it feels less seedy than Tinder,” and “many lines look like dad jokes: ‘Hey, Liana, nice to meet Jew,’ as opposed to the usual Tinder banter, which goes like, ‘You look fistable.’”
“Sex isn’t off the menu of JSwipe,” says Rosenberg, “but so far I’ve found more of a kosher experience with matches likely to end up meeting my grandparents and being left there, at my family’s house, while I’d go out to meet a proper man.”
You can state on the app whether you’re kosher…
@yarbs81 I got us a @JSwipe account set up so you have some options when you get back #Kosher pic.twitter.com/X4TlXFu4uj
— James Gerlock (@gerlockitup) August 23, 2014
…or reform:
Susie is cute. And she’s only 1,727 Miles Away. Thanks #Jswipe! pic.twitter.com/prHqD81vkR
— Lou Magelowitz (@LouMagel) August 24, 2014
JSwipe also lets users choose “willing to convert”—if they feel honest enough.
“In London there’s only a finite number of JSwipees,” bemoans Rosenberg. “I could swipe through everyone in a day.” But for all its failings, many find luck, and possibly love, on the app.
Thanks for the suggestion, Facebook. Never again will I date gentile women. #jswipe pic.twitter.com/HkSaLGLIZf
— David Munoz (@david_munoz342) August 24, 2014
Photo via zeevveez/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
