Frumster
"Frum" is a Yiddish word (I think) meaning "observant". Friendster is an online dating service.
Frumster, therefore, is obviously an online dating service for Orthodox Jews.
But it's not what you think, at least not entirely, if TallSparkles69 is any indication. They sure didn't look like that in Hebrew School, if you know what I mean.
Of course, Sparkles showed up in a search for "modern orthodox - liberal". The other categories are more what you'd expect:
- Modern Orthodox - Machmir
- Yeshiva/Black Hat
- Hassidish
- Carlebachian
I have no idea what Machmir or Carlebachian means. Perhaps the somewhat more frum brother-thing will weigh in.
This is what I love about the web: people in relatively small niches can find each other in ways that were difficult, if not impossible, 10 years ago.
Joshua Edelstein, on Tuesday, August 26, 2003 at 10:37 AM:
Brother-thing here. Carlebachian is probably a reference to Shlomo Carlebach, who was a noted spiritual leader and singer. Not sure if he was actually a rabbi or not. Anyway, you think Led Zepplin has a lot of records? Feh! Carlebach basically was the pioneer of sort of new-Jew touchy-feely neshamah Judaism and sang and sang and sang and sang and sang about it. Hippies love him.
A brief consultation with the Shekinternet (God's dwelling on lit optics) reveals that Machmir denotes strict adherence to halacha, or the minutae of Jewish law. The ridiculous example of over-adherence would be the dairy farm that has a kosher authority actually sitting with cows 24/7 so that they can ensure that aliens don't turn the cow into another (potentially non-kosher) animal at any time.
Shows how much I paid attention in Hebrew school--I got "machmir" confused with "machmer" which (I think) means "what's your name?"
A Jew, on Tuesday, October 7, 2003 at 9:52 AM:
Hi. Orthodox (I hate that term....we're really UNorthdox, if you think about it!) Jew here to fill you in. In this context, "Machmir" means "with relatively stringent leanings". For example, a liberal Modern Orthodox Jew would likely approve of women wearing pants, while a machmir Moder Orthodox Jew would likely disapprove (the concern here being that pants more clearly outline a woman's body than a skirt does, and Judaism considers modesty to be of considerable importance - not out of fear of sexuality or reluctance to recognize it, but rather out of deep recognition of the power and potency of sexual attraction) (sorry for the digression).
A Jew, on Tuesday, October 7, 2003 at 9:53 AM:
Sorry about that url.......I was trying to be anonymous, but I picked a poor choice of "fake" url.....didn't think it would actually exist!
David Adam Edelstein, on Tuesday, October 7, 2003 at 10:11 AM:
Thanks for the clarification, Mystery Jew! :-)
Dave, on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 at 9:29 AM:
Led Zeppelin only has something like 10 records.
Alan Goldberg, on Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 10:01 AM:
Another site that pretty much offers the same things as frumster is frumsky. Unfortunately it isn't as poplar so you don't get many profiles like the photo displayed of people that look like they are stoned.
http://www.frumsky.com