Gail and Harvey: "I decided to join Jdate for a three month trial..."

Several years ago, two bored sisters with a wicked sense of humor created a Jdate profile for Harvey, one of their father’s closest friends. They never imagined it would lead to a three-year, cross-Atlantic relationship, including aliyah (immigration to Israel), a very public marriage proposal and a wedding!

Gail & Harvey’s Story:

Shortly after my divorce, I decided to join Jdate for a three month trial. I knew I wanted to move to Israel, but with children still at home, was not able to set a timetable. I figured it was a long shot, but nevertheless created a profile. I was very specific about my desire to make aliyah and that I was only interested in either a fellow Anglo who had an open file with Nefesh B’Nefesh, or an Anglo who was already living in Israel.

I was very specific about my desire to make aliyah

Meanwhile in Israel, the two aforementioned sisters not only created Harvey’s profile, but decided to have even more fun by paying extra for it to be a “featured” profile, assuring he always appeared at the top of the search results and had his picture surrounded by a decorative border. They laughed themselves silly while filling in the profile with the most outrageous details they could think of. “What are you looking for in a woman?” was answered with: “A vast knowledge of cleaning supplies.” And the question, “What is your ‘perfect date?’” was answered with “She pays.”

Poor me, I could never understand how (no matter what I searched for), NoCuteName’s profile was always there, right on top. Curious, I viewed it, dismissed him as a nut, and wondered what type of woman would even think about dating him…

Just two days before my Jdate account was due to expire, I received an email from him. Not being the least bit interested, but having been raised to be polite, I responded. And then, emails flew back and forth, we spoke via Skype and the relationship intensified. Not surprisingly, I realized he was nothing like his profile! On my next trip to Israel, we missed each other, but on the one after, he picked me up from the airport and we spent a lot of time together.

I instantly fell head over heels

I was self-employed, and Harvey was a builder, who at that time had to halt work due to the construction freeze in Israel. That gave us lots of time to talk, Skype and pepper each other’s Facebook pages with comments. One day over Skype, I absent-mindedly wondered aloud if he was just spending all this time with me because he was bored. He disavowed me of that notion in an email so touching that I instantly fell head over heels!

Over the next three years, we took turns traveling back and forth to see each other. Finally in September of 2012, with my youngest daughter married and my youngest son safely away in a high school dormitory, I was able to realize my dream and made aliyah. Coming through the doors at Ben Gurion’s arrivals, clutching my precious, long overdue teudat zehut, I saw Harvey, holding a large sign, with a handwritten poem, asking me to be his wife!

Six months later, on Friday morning, April 5th 2013, we married in Jerusalem and are happily living in Efrat.

Gail and Harvey
Efrat, Israel