Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Want A Jewish College Roommate? BBYO Has The App

(JTA) — Finding a Jewish roommate at college can be a challenge, given that Jews make up only about 2 percent of the American population. A new free app hopes to make the matching process easier.

Joomie (yep), launched over the weekend at the BBYO International Convention in Dallas, asks incoming first-year students questions about their Jewish identity and personal habits with the aim of creating harmonious Jewish dorm mates.

“Questions range from their Jewish youth group affiliations and whether they’re Sabbath observant and keep kosher, to what kind of music they like, types of campus activity interests they have, and whether they’re early birds or night owls, and messy or neat freaks,” according to a news release.

Matt Grossman, BBYO’s CEO, said: “We believe that usage of Joomie will help facilitate the transition to college for many students, and ultimately promote a greater engagement in Jewish life in campuses across North America.”

Engaging young people in Jewish life is the life blood of the pluralistic teen group, whose annual meeting is one of the biggest Jewish gatherings in the country, period.

Nearly 5,000 teenagers, presenters, activists and staff attended this year’s BBYO conference. Speakers at the star-studded affair included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “Shark Tank” star and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the eminent Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt and former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro.

Cuban said he “loved” his time in BBYO as a teen. But there’s no word yet on whether the shark would invest in Joomie.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.