A Jewish Man Is Hard to Find For Jewish Women

World Jewish Digest reports:

Meet Daniel: he's 31 years old, grew up in a Conservative home and now considers himself "Reconstructionist, if I have to affiliate myself at all." Living in a small college town, highly educated and extremely social, Daniel (who declined to provide his last name) dates almost constantly, but says that only about 15 to 20 percent of the women he dates are Jewish. A woman's Jewishness "is not that important," he says.

"For my parents, it's important that I marry someone Jewish. But for me, being Jewish is a plus, but I'd be happy to marry someone not Jewish if we have other things in common," he explains. "I feel there is a much bigger division between those who are observant of any religion [and] those who are non-observant than there is between religions." He would therefore rather that his children be "unobservant Christians" than very religious Jews.

Now meet "Jacqueline" (who wished to remain anonymous): she is 32, also grew up in a Conservative home, lives in New York City and works in the non-profit sector. She is funny and smart and wants to get married - specifically to a Jewish man. "I want my children to grow up with Jewish values and be part of the Jewish community," she says. "It's important for a married couple to have those common values and a similar heritage."

Yet Jacqueline has had a hard time finding a suitable Jewish mate. "My friends and I talk about it all the time," she says. "It's a major problem. You have fantastic women who are beautiful, intelligent, warm, great to be around, who have senses of humor and want to be wives and mothers, to be part of a couple - and we are not able to do that because the men are not in the same place."

It sounds like Jewish women have competition.