JSwipe — The Largest And Fastest Growing Dating App For Jews

David Yarus is the founder of JSwipe, an app that has over 410,000 active users in 70 different countries since launching last Passover.

The company which is in the midst of a lawsuit with JDate.

JDate is suing for trademark and patent infringement of the letter “J” and the meaning behind the word “swipe” — recently launched an Indiegogo campaign David vs. Goliath, Keep JSwipe alive! aiming to raise $180,000 to protect itself against a suit.

Although the company only managed to raise $19,406 in one month and subsequently closed the campaign, Yarus mentioned in a recent JPost piece that it is equally important that the campaign spread awareness across the Jewish community about what is going on, as it is to raise funds.

He adds that the company might have to "get creative" in order to see the lawsuit through.

JSwipe was recently featured in Matchmaker and App-maker, make me/swipe me a match. Yentas vs. apps, where I spoke to if Jewish singles are turning to apps over Yentas to find their beshert.

Afterwards Yarus was kind enough to answer a short Q&A about the app and give some advice to single Jewish millennial.

1. How did your background lead you to founding JSwipe?

Prior to launching JSwipe in April 2014, Yarus founded mllnnl, a millennial marketing agency that helps organizations like Hillel International and Taglit-Birthright Israel understand and inspire millennial worldwide.

With a passion for technology, millennial empowerment, and all things future, Yarus and his team have taken JSwipe worldwide, for millennial Jews to have a free and simple way to meet other singles.

2. How/when did JSwipe start?

The idea came to Yarus when he found a void in Tinder's model. Marrying someone Jewish is very important to him (as it is to many others), so the ease of finding a match with the swipe of a finger was negated when the first half of the conversation was finding out if his matches were Jewish or not.

Then it dawned on him to create an app that answered those questions before the conversation had even started; and that is how the idea of JSwipe came to be. Users are able to filter potential matches by denomination and kosher status, allowing for a common ground off the bat, and therefore, a higher potential for a relationship.   

3. How many users are on the app currently?

As of August 2015, 410,000 users across 70 countries have installed the app, 33 million chats have been initiated, 8.2 million matches have been made, and users have swiped a little over 800 million times. With over 20 marriages and countless relationships, we’ve spread lots of love!

4. How has JSwipe been able to attract millennial Jewish daters?

Many users on JSwipe are looking for a more serious relationship than other apps because religious identity is innately more serious.

The intention of our community is to make finding Jewish love as fast, fun, and #future as possible.

5. What separates JSwipe from other apps?

We are a niche dating app geared specifically at Jewish culture. We provide our community with a fun, free, and easy way to find love. You can see our light-hearted Jewish humor throughout the interface; swipe right on a user, and a happy face Star of David appears. Match with someone, and an animation of the horah plays with the message, “Mazel tov! You and ___ have matched!” We provide people a useful tool to find love, but we like making it a fun process as well.

6. Are there different types of membership options?

We are a free dating app, so everyone can reap the benefits.

7. Describe JSwipe's expansion to date?

We started JSwipe over Passover in 2014. In a little over a year, we are quickly approaching half a million users. That’s pretty humbling, but amazing to know we are touching many people’s lives.

We've received thousands of stories of happy relationships, a good amount of engagements, and even some marriages so far! In fact, we were actually part of a JSwipe proposal! More info here: Lauren and Andrew

8. What is next for JSwipe?

Stay tuned!

9. What are long term goals?

Continue to provide singles a fun, fast, and free way of meeting people.

10. Is a premium membership option in the works?

Currently we don't make money, but we sure do make mitzvahs. We plan on continuing that.

11. Last question, what dating advice can you impart on single Jewish millennial?

Meet as many people as possible! In the age of technology, millennial are given a plethora of tools to make their life as easy and efficient as possible. Use them to your advantage!