In a pending million-dollar collaboration, JDate, a well-known dating site for Jewish singles, is rumored to be partnering with JScreen, a non-profit genetic screening program.
With this new technology, upon subscribing and signing up for a JDate profile, users are immediately mailed a swab kit from Emory University’s JScreen to screen for several Jewish genetic diseases (both Ashkenazic and Sephardic) before searching for matches. Once the kit is mailed back with a user’s saliva and information on it, it is sent to the lab for express testing. The lab then sends the correct genetic information to the dating site, and it is automatically added to each user’s profile information (privately, of course).
In order to have a viable profile on JDate, swabs will be a mandatory step in order to complete one’s application. The software of the tremendously successful dating site, the same technology that matches all kinds of Jewish singles around the world, is currently being updated to make automatic calculations based on the screening information, and avoid “genetically bad matches.” This innovotaive approach to dating has been termed “Screen-Dating.”
Many Jewish lay leaders are extremely enthusiastic about the new collaboration, calling it “the cure for the crisis.” (Referring, of course, to the “shidduch crisis.”)
However, not everyone is as enthused. Some people are critical of the collaboration and complain that the addition will most likely raise JDate monthly rates, which will deter subsciptions. Others object that this mandatory requirement to get screene will not be particularly useful for those members of JDate who are only there for the “hookup scene.” Furthermore, the requirement to get screened might add extra pressure to those who just want to date casually which will prevent a certain population of Jewish singles from subscribing.
What’s your take on the impending JDate/JScreen collab?