#335 Dorit Shamouelian (Kew gardens, New York)
& Rodney Hakim (Manhasset, New York)

Success Story

JRetroMatch / SawYouAtSinai Success Story: Dorit & Rodney Hakim Two and a half years ago, my wife and I were complete strangers, not knowing each other in the least. We are both Iranian Jews, and even though we lived fairly close to each other and our community is relatively small, we had never come across each other at any parties or social gatherings. We have many, many friends in common, and our worlds were intersecting in many ways and places, but we still had no knowledge of each other. We were both completely fed up with the dating scene, and had each individually come to the conclusion that marriage may not be in the proverbial cards for us. Then, a co-worker of Dorit's pushed her to try the website SawYouAtSinai.com, and my sister nagged me into trying JRetroMatch.com, with each of us only accepting after much reluctance, and myself only on the condition that I had a free trial period that I didn't have to pay or provide a credit card for. I remember being annoyed to even fill out my profile and choose my matchmaker, thinking that this would be another waste of my precious time, and wishing I was doing something more productive than sitting at my computer checking off boxes and writing about my likes and dislikes. Thankfully, our timing coincided, as Dorit's SawYouAtSinai profile was about to expire, which she was not planning to renew, and my free trial period started at exactly the same time. Within a week or so of being on the site, my matchmaker, Lesley Silver-Winick, matched us up. I remember reading Dorit's profile and thinking, "Wow, this is exactly the kind of girl I'm looking for!" But we were both still hardened by all the crazy dating experiences we had endured, so neither of us looked at the match with much optimism. Dorit didn't even want to accept the match at first, but her younger sister prodded her to try at least one date. I called Dorit within a couple of days of getting the match, and our phone call lasted less than two minutes, with only a few perfunctory greetings, and an agreement to meet within a few days for a quick coffee. The day we were supposed to meet, she called and postponed, and I figured that this was another one of those bad dates or blow-offs waiting to happen. We finally met a week later, with me getting lost on the way to pick her up, and nearly abandoning the date out of the frustration of not being able to find her street. Then, I finally found the place, called her up, and waited a couple of minutes until she walked to my car. When she appeared, I was stunned; this girl looked much better than her profile picture indicated, which was a rarity in my experience, and there was something strangely familiar and comforting about her that grabbed me from the first moment. We sat and had a very pleasant, albeit brief chat at Starbucks, and then I went to drop her off, as she was going to meet some friends later in the evening. When I dropped her off, I asked her for a second date, expecting the usual reply I was accustomed to, of "let me check my calendar and get back to you." I was pleasantly surprised when she accepted immediately, with a concrete date and time, no less! We went out three times in the first week, and I remember telling my cousin in synagogue the following Shabbat, "I've met this girl, and I somehow see us being married by the end of the year." Suffice it to say, we met in January 2008, and got married that December! We have been happily married for over a year and a half, and truly consider ourselves as soul mates that Hashem (G-d) brought together. I now know that the familiarity and comfort I felt in the first moment was the joy of being reunited with my other half, my bashert, We are so thankful to JRetoMatch and SawYouAtSinai for bringing us together, as even when we had zero expectations from the sites, they ultimately gave us everything! We highly recommend the sites, and wish you all a lot of luck!