How Jonathan met Edna

Was it by chance that two Bombay-born young people decided to get married on Valentine's Day? "Nothing happens by chance," says Jonathan Kolet.

When they met, Jonathan was 25 and living in Israel. "I returned to the city of my birth, Bombay, and attended a camp program sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee Center. There I met this beautiful girl," says Jonathan.

Edna Moses, 22, was working for the center as an assistant teacher. She had spent the prior year in Israel studying at the SHALEM program in Jerusalem. "I liked living in Israel, but I decided to return to Bombay to impart the knowledge to my community that I gained in the program," says Edna.

How Ofer met Naomi

If you want to marry a doctor, try going to a bookstore right next to a hospital. Better yet, try going to medical school. About half of all young physicians marry other doctors.

Ofer Finkelstein and Naomi Yeshurun met in medical school at the University of Debrecen in Hungary. Ofer was a second-year student "when a beautiful girl arrived in the freshman class. All heads turned," says Ofer. They met and played "Jewish geography" to see if they knew anyone in common. About a third of the class was from Israel.

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How Alex met Vicky

Vicky Aharonovich was in her third year of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem when she saw a flyer about auditions for "Tevye, the Dairyman," the 19th century classic that was later adapted as the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. She loved acting and had seriously considered a career in the theater. But the play was being sponsored by the campus Hillel House, and she was "anti-everything Jewish" at the time. "My decision to try out for a part was one of the best decisions of my life," she says.

Alex Roitman auditioned, too. He was a student in the university's Revivim Program, an honors program for the training of teachers of Jewish studies.

Alex got the part of Tevye, and Vicky played Tzeitl, the oldest daughter.

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How Barry met Sybil

Sybil and Barry Kaplan, a couple who reunited after their marriages ended in divorce, first met in eighth grade, at a Halloween party. "The party was boring until we met," says Barry.

They started dating three years later after meeting up again at a B'nai Brith Youth convention. Sybil remembers he was wearing gray pants and a pink sweater, hot colors at the time. Their mothers were friends. Sybil and Barry were both active in Kansas City Jewish youth groups and they did what teens did in the 1950s. They "went steady."

How Jeff met Limor

What attracted Limor, a 28-year-old Israeli model and a student of human sexuality, to Jeff, a 38-year-old American businessman and divorced dad living in Las Vegas? Without pause, Limor replies: "His sense of humor."

Limor is not alone in her thinking. In a People magazine poll, readers were asked: What is the No.1 attribute in a man? And 42.6% responded: A sense of humor.

"He kept me laughing the first time I met him," says Limor. They met in 2005, when Limor Blockman was studying in San Francisco at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

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Meet the matchmaker

The author of Godsend - How couples meet and marry in the Jewish world is Leah Hakimian, a community matchmaker whose stories on falling and staying in love are well known to readers of the online versions of the Jewish Week in New York and the St. Louis Jewish Light since 2005

Hakimian's columns are all about happy endings, chronicling successful matches that blossom both in the most unlikely places like gyms, softball games, buses and supermarket checkout lines as well as the more conventional venues of synagogues, community centers and Shabbat dinner tables. "Meetings arranged by mutual friends are the best bet for success because the atmosphere is relaxed," says Leah.

Leah grew up in St. Louis, received her BA from Washington University and her Ph.D. in education from St. Louis University. She and her Iranian-born husband Yusef have been married since 1960 ("Met in June, engaged in August and married in December"), now live in Jerusalem and New York, and count four daughters and eight grandchildren among their blessings.