Yenta App Finds You a (Jewish) Match

In case you didn’t have enough grandparents, neighbors, and rabbis trying to make sure you don’t remain single and Jewish for long, your iPhone is getting in on the matchmaking game. Today, the New York Post reported that Yenta is a new app to solve your romantic and semitic woes.
In a similar model to the popular gay app Grindr, Yenta tracks your location on your phone and shows you a list of other single members of the tribe in the relative vicinity. However, while Grindr is used almost explicitly for finding a quick sexual encounter, Yenta desires to help you find your “Jewboo,” which is possibly the least sexually appealing term possible. In fact, creator Luba Tolkachyov made clear Yenta’s more innocent intentions. Viewing it as a twist on the ever-popular JDate, the app is meant to remove “the need for a lengthy profile,” he told the New York Post. Well, I certainly know I am looking for a Jewish soulmate who hates formulating sentences so much that a dating profile is unbearably strenuous for him to compose!
According to Tolkachyov, single Jews should be scoping out every environment with the potential for a shidduch, like the eagle stalking mountainous terrain for prey. He wants users to be able to “walk into a coffee shop and find out who’s Jewish and single around you,” he added. God forbid you buy your morning java and not be consumed with finding your future spouse; a moment spent not obsessing over finding your beshert, is a moment wasted.
The app is currently 10,000 strong worldwide, a drop in the bucket compared to Grindr’s 4 million plus. But, it’s still a sizable community for an app that’s only been available one month.
For the strict purpose of journalistic integrity, this intrepid reporter downloaded Yenta to test the app out. After being miffed it would not let me proceed without uploading a photo, I chose a group shot, so that no one could actually recognize me, which brings up an interesting issue. I nearly had a heart attack when I thought my finger slipped and hit the option to publicize on Facebook. While online dating has lost most (okay, some) of its stigma, apps for dating really aren’t there yet.
Yenta does try to ask those cute, Jewish matchmaking questions, like “How Jewish are you?,” “What’s your schtick,” and “What would impress your mother?” Yet, if it wants to be a dating, as opposed to hook-up, app, it’s going to need to provide more information about its users. Even if you want to, there really isn’t room to list your age, profession, or relationship status (don’t assume everyone on this is single). With so little personal information presented, it seems to set up users only for casual encounters — which probably won’t make you a hot commodity on the Jewish marriage market.
But who knows, with a little time, some more users, and less stigma, Yenta might just be the next step in 21st Century Jewish dating. There’s potential, if enough cynical, burned out, but still slightly hopeful single Jews begin signing up for Yenta.
But until then, I’m keeping the tracking feature off.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A federal agency survey reportedly asks Barnard employees if they’re Jewish
-
Opinion A Palestinian leader just gave Trump an unprecedented opening to pursue peace
-
Fast Forward NIH bans grants for schools that boycott Israeli companies
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.