JDate Shuts Offices in Israel — Keeps Hebrew Version

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
JERUSALEM — The Jewish matchmaking website JDate has closed its offices in Israel.
Spark Network, which operates the site, recently laid off its 25 employees in Israel and closed its offices in Herzliya, the Israeli business daily Calcalist reported this week.
The Israeli JDate website will continue to be maintained from the United States and include Hebrew-language content, according to Calcalist.
The closure of the Israel offices is part of a reduction in the company’s operations worldwide, according to Calcalist, following declining revenues over at least the last year.
JDate, the first Jewish dating website, was established in the United States in 1997 and began operating in Israel in 2002. The website has about 750,000 subscribers, including an estimated 350,000 in Israel.
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