A day-long seminar was held last week on an issue that has been increasingly perturbing religious Zionist circles over the past years: The increasing number of older unmarried singles. Arutz-7\'s Ofrah Lax reports that in light of the phenomenon of young religious men and women who seek to marry and establish families, yet find themselves in their 30\'s and still single, several national-religious organizations chipped in to help raise awareness of the problem. Among the seminar\'s sponsors were the Bat Ami girls\' national service organization, the magazine Mar\'ot (Scenes, Visions), and Talpiot College. Professionals, unmarried singles, and rabbis addressed the participants.
One single explained that the situation, in her opinion, is a result of the lack of opportunities for men and women to meet each other: \"Most of our schools and social frameworks are separate [men from women], and therefore the only way to meet each other is by a friend\'s suggestion or some such; it is very difficult.\" Ramat Gan\'s Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel said that the problem stems from deeper roots: \"We have unfortunately adopted the thinking of the Western world that does not sufficiently value the family unit. We must take that which is positive from the West, but not… this idea of pushing off marriage for a long time. It is not a Jewish idea, and not even a humanistic idea. We must teach our youth, starting from high school age, the importance of the family and marriage. The girls\' schools are doing this, but it is not being done strongly enough among the boys…\" The seminar followed a special day by other religious-social organizations such as Tzohar, Kolekh, and others a couple of weeks ago to study the situation, identify the problems, and form work-groups that would find solutions.
One single explained that the situation, in her opinion, is a result of the lack of opportunities for men and women to meet each other: \"Most of our schools and social frameworks are separate [men from women], and therefore the only way to meet each other is by a friend\'s suggestion or some such; it is very difficult.\" Ramat Gan\'s Chief Rabbi Yaakov Ariel said that the problem stems from deeper roots: \"We have unfortunately adopted the thinking of the Western world that does not sufficiently value the family unit. We must take that which is positive from the West, but not… this idea of pushing off marriage for a long time. It is not a Jewish idea, and not even a humanistic idea. We must teach our youth, starting from high school age, the importance of the family and marriage. The girls\' schools are doing this, but it is not being done strongly enough among the boys…\" The seminar followed a special day by other religious-social organizations such as Tzohar, Kolekh, and others a couple of weeks ago to study the situation, identify the problems, and form work-groups that would find solutions.