Page 28 - HaMizrachi Yom HaAtzmaut 5782 USA

Searching

for a Soulmate:

Helping Religious Zionist Anglos

Find One Another

By RivkaLambert Adler

itting in a hospital waiting room waiting for
her husband’s cancer-staging surgery, Tzippi
S(Schechet) Sha-ked made a decision that would
ultimately impact thousands of people.

“I felt that I needed to pray, yes, but also to do something
far more significant and far-reaching. I had to beseech the
heavens and get our Maker’s attention. I prayed, pleaded
and pledged, ‘I will help those feeling the same darkness
I’m feeling this very moment. I will be there for singles, day
and night. I will storm the heavens on their behalf.’ From
his hospital bed, I created Points of Contact (POC). I didn’t
have even one single at that moment. Ten minutes later I
had three, an hour later, six. By the time David landed in
the recovery room, I had 15 singles.” Bati and Bezalel Koplon, a Points of Contact couple. (PHOTO: YEHUDA CARDOSO)
Today, Points of Contact is a closed Facebook group of Shoshana Scharf is one of the more active volunteer
more than 600 volunteer matchmakers (called Point matchmakers on POC. “I try constantly to find my singles
People) working primarily on behalf of marriage-minded their bashert (soulmate). I try to match according to
religious Anglo-Israelis. There are approximately 1,200 similarities, interests and differences. It’s important to
English-speaking singles in POC’s private database, and listen to the singles’ [opinion about] what is important. I
there have been close to 90 marriages of couples who met always ask what they don’t want in a partner. It gives me
through POC. a [better sense] of what they want and what they need.”
One of the matches was Sha-ked’s own daughter, Tehila, Scharf and her husband have been making matches for
who married Noah Michael, son of Deborah Michael, one decades, but she has a particular fondness for the POC
of the site’s Point People. Noah Michael reflected on his way of bringing people together. “We interact with our
good fortune: singles, guiding, listening, working together with truly
special shadchanim whose only purpose is to work together
“My initial reaction was one of both excitement and to encourage, offer suggestions, and in the end, make
hesitation. I was 20 years old at the time and wasn’t sure matches.” As Scharf explains, there are safeguards in place
I was ready to date. However, after hearing my wife’s to protect the singles. One of the fundamental rules is
description, I had a really good feeling about it and went that each single is represented by a Point Person. Before
for it. With our third anniversary around the corner, I’m a match is suggested to a single, both Point People have
happy I did… I have many friends who have struggled for to agree that it’s a reasonable match.
years to find a match. Groups like POC certainly help speed She emphasized that “no single or anyone from the outside
up the process, and people shouldn’t be embarrassed to can enter our database. Our site is totally closed and used
join them.” only by our matchmakers.”

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