In the wake of the Haiti earthquake the Israeli press has been writing about the possibility of a major earthquake along Israel’s faultlines. But experts don’t consider it a possibility. It’s a certainty, the only question is when.

During a discussion at the Internal Affairs Committee following the recent disaster in the Caribbean country, Shapira stated, “Granted one can’t predict them or their date, but we must accept that what will kill people is not an earthquake. What kills them is the building.”

One of the first decisions an engaged couple and their parents will make is how to reward the shadchan (matchmaker).

In the haredi world, each side pays $1000 to the shadchan. But in the religious Zionist community, where most matches are made through friends or teachers, money rarely changes hands. Few charge for their services.

Apparently, some years ago Rabbi Eliyahu recommended that every institution assign a shadchan to look out for its students. Isramom’s son’s yeshiva gave the job to one of the student’s wives. When Isramom’s son received NIS 1000 for suggesting a girl he had dated to a fellow student, the student’s wife joked, “All I ever get are sets of glasses and vases.”

Come to an event for Israeli bloggers in Modiin

I’ve been given the run-around for several months by the internet service provider (ISP) Netvision.

In Israel, you pay two fees for ADSL: one fee to the national phone company Bezeq or cable network service for the ADSL infrastructure, and a second fee to the ISP.

Read more on The Government Helps the Little Guy (Me)…

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I am going to adopt the style of Life in Israel and Parshablog and number my lists of interesting posts. I’ll start with number one, even though it’s not the first.

1. The OU’s marriage satisfaction survey claims that overall marriages are healthy, with 70% of respondents claiming they would remarry their partners. The most dissatisfaction appears around 20 to 30 years after marriage, but those who stick it for longer are happy.
2. Rabbi Joshua Waxman of Parshablog responded to my post on Genetic Testing.

I hear of more and more couples who met through the internet. DossiDate seems to be the most popular site for religious Israelis, and has an English version too. It is open to all Sabbath-observant, Jewish singles.

I can think of a lot of advantages to meeting via the internet:

In charedi circles there has been a lot of talk about the “tragedy” of older single women not finding their mates. I put tragedy in quotes not to make light of the problem, but to emphasize the word’s emotional weight.

While it may not be seen as a tragedy, the religious-Zionist community does seem to have a problem. Many families in our synagogue has several single children approaching thirty or older. A television drama series, Srugim, focuses on older religious Zionist singles.

So what do you think? How serious is this problem? And more important, what is the solution?

What Do I Write About Next?
Generating Ideas to Keep Readers Coming Back

Time and Date: Sunday, February 7 at 8:00 PM

Speaker: Hannah Katsman, A Mother in Israel

Location: Hosted by Baila in Modiin

Read more on Bloggers:Last Chance to Sign Up for Modiin Event Sunday…

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ReBack when I decided to take blogging more seriously, I began following Darren Rowse of Problogger.Net. I like Darren because

• He’s successful, with three blogs and millions of page views.
• He covers every aspect of blogging, including writing, productivity, design, traffic, monetization and much more.

Read more on 31 Days to a Better Blog…

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Where do young couples go on dates? The younger ones, especially, are quite frugal and want to spend as little as possible. I have also heard of young men rejecting offers because the transportation would cost too much. Back when I was dating, we called this GU, or “geographically undesirable.”

Remember the sign in Neve Yaakov, warning mothers not to sit next to immodestly dressed women in the playground? Today Rafi published a photograph of a pashkevil (wall poster) in Bnei Brak, urging people to “distinguish” themselves from “throwing-off-the-yoke-shortening-the-clothes” women.

The injunctions:

? Stay far from their company
? Don’t accept their children to (educational) institutions
? Protest against them.