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Love Stories

If you had told me when I was younger my path would lead me here I would have laughed. I cho...

If you had told me when I was younger my path would lead me here I would have laughed. I chose not to attend Hebrew school; I chose not to celebrate my Bat Mitzvah and outside of going to Central Queens Y after school and camp and getting dragged to synagogue on the high holidays, being Jewish, for me, was living in a Zionist household and eating good food. And then I got married and had a baby and that need to connect to my Jewish roots became a force I could not deny. Passing Jewish values onto my son became so important and the driving force to making major life decisions. I refocused my almost 20 year career in corporate marketing so I could devote my expertise on giving back to the people of Sid Jacobson JCC and so my son could be raised within the very community our family has become a part of.

Jaime Krinsky
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Love Stories

I had a job at a small publishing house and the woman sitting in front of me had a son who w...

I had a job at a small publishing house and the woman sitting in front of me had a son who was about to go through his Bar Mitzvah. I became good friends with her, and she invited me to her house for the holidays and I would cook with her. Though I was brought up in the Presbyterian Church, my friend taught me so much about Judaism. More recently when I hurt my shoulder, my sister was looking for a place for me to stay and ultimately I moved in to the New Jewish Home. And I think it's wonderful here! The people here are fabulous, and they've got music and theater and we go out on excursions.

Karole Riippa
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Love Stories

June 4th will be my 60th wedding anniversary. So the Y opened when I got married. My wife an...

June 4th will be my 60th wedding anniversary. So the Y opened when I got married. My wife and I raised three wonderful children and five beautiful grandchildren. One of my daughters lives in Plainview and her husband and her children are very involved in the Y. When I was younger, I used to come here 4-5 times a week and workout and swim. My time at the Y has been a very pleasant experience and it has given me a feeling of belonging. I love it here!

Ed Rosenfeld
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Love Stories

I met the woman of my dreams working at a Jewish Community Center. I had just graduated coll...

I met the woman of my dreams working at a Jewish Community Center. I had just graduated college and unsure of what I wanted to do in life. I was hired at the last minute by the Mid-Island Y JCC Summer Camp as a sports camp division head. In my first orientation, I was floored by the beauty of one of my staff members. We became close after the summer and began to date. Fast forward nine years later and she and I are getting married at the camp in front of all 400 campers at our amphitheater. I am now the camp director for that camp and our children are current campers. If we are lucky when our kids are older, they will be lucky enough to meet the man or woman of their dreams at camp like we did.

Joshua Henkel
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Love Stories

Hebrew school dropout may have missed the bus but caught the ride of his life

Hebrew school dropout may have missed the bus but caught the ride of his life

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Love Stories

Avi and I met at Congregation Ramath Orah on the UWS. He was an Orthodox rabbinic student at...

Avi and I met at Congregation Ramath Orah on the UWS. He was an Orthodox rabbinic student at YCT and I was a Reform cantorial student at HUC-JIR. We had a marathon 17 hour date replete with Chanukah party, a snowy walk on the UWS and talking at French Roast until the sun came up. While we took a s short break to live in St. Louis, we are back and thrilled to be raising our four kids in a vibrant and diverse NY Jewish community!

Adina Frydman
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Love Stories

My mom and dad, who have been married 35 years, met at UJA on a young professional's boat cruise in the 70s!

My mom and dad, who have been married 35 years, met at UJA on a young professional's boat cruise in the 70s!

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Love Stories

They were conversing loudly in Yiddish. The scene was confusing because they did not look Je...

They were conversing loudly in Yiddish. The scene was confusing because they did not look Jewish to me, let alone Hasidic. We ordered slices and sodas and while we waited, we overheard a familiar name amidst their Yiddish gossip. Chaya, the braver of the two of us, inserted her opinion into their conversation. It's the way the Jewish world goes round- if you don't know each other or a cousin in some way you haven't spoken for long enough. She knew his brother and his friend. We ate our fill and exited the shop into the cold winter air. The bus seemed like it was never going to show and then he showed up, "It doesn't seem like the bus is coming today. Need a ride?" The offer was too good and we accepted. He lent me a cassette which I promised to return. I kept my promise. Twenty one years later, happily married and raising three amazing children, we never forget where we started out, in that Brooklyn pizza shop on a cold winter day.

Chana Landau
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Love Stories

My now husband was suggested to me through friends several times over the last 8 years, but ...

My now husband was suggested to me through friends several times over the last 8 years, but I kept on telling people that he wasn't for me. We actually lived in the same exact buildings in NY over the last 7 years. I saw him around at concerts, restaurants and synagogues all over NYC, but never really thought about it. We finally met in the YU library when we were both finishing masters’ degrees. It was a hot day so I went to go find a cool spot and ran into a friend of mine who invited me to join his table. I sat down and my husband showed up. He was shy at first, but once he opened up, I realized that he was exactly what I was looking for! When we got engaged 9 months later, one of the rabbis on the 5th floor had all the librarians wish us mazel tov! We got married in June of this year.

Chani Kovacs
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Love Stories

When I started working at UJA in 2009, straight out of college, all of the girls on the 9th ...

When I started working at UJA in 2009, straight out of college, all of the girls on the 9th floor were on JDate and told me I had to join. I did and met my husband on the first date and two of my colleagues met their husbands too.

Molly Zaentz
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Love Stories

Last New Years, I went to a kosher restaurant with a girl friend. The same night, at around the same time, a handsome man went to the same kosher restaurant with his friends to bring in the New Year. We ...

Last New Years, I went to a kosher restaurant with a girl friend. The same night, at around the same time, a handsome man went to the same kosher restaurant with his friends to bring in the New Year. We didn't meet then, but we both swiped right six weeks later and have been together ever since.