Michael E. Gruen

Jews need love too– but some sure do have a funny way of going about finding it.

In Times Square hangs a huge billboard advertising JDate, a jewish-only online dating service. It’s like match.com, but for Jews.

Singles create profiles to describe themselves, their perfect date, and what they expect out of a relationship. They include pictures, yiddish phrases, and statistics including religious denomination and astrological sign to woo potential mates. Though users are asked for a user name, many men and women opt to use their unique serial numbers, a number assigned during signup, in lieu of a name to identify themselves.

Let’s read that again.

Though users are asked for a user name, many men and women opt to use their unique serial numbers, a number assigned during signup, in lieu of a name to identify themselves.

To boot, user numbers are unique, assigned, and permanent. You’d think for a cultural group so greatly affected by the holocaust, certain members would be more aware of the irony. 

At least you can change your phone number.

–

Notes: The author identifies culturally as Jewish. The author is not on JDate. Friends of the author, over dinner, noted that it was hard to remember girls that used JDate-assigned numbers instead of user names. The author remarked how funny that seemed in historical contexts. Laughter ensued. Promises were made to produce a blog post. The author makes no apology.

More: Spark Networks (LOV), the parent company of JDate, uses the same technology for other niche dating sites such as aptly-named Interracial Singles, Big Beautiful Woman Personals Plus, and Indian Matrimonial Network. These names are so wonderfully descriptive.

There are so many people I’d like to rave on; but, to avoid an Academy Award faux pas, I’m going to keep this short. 

Extra-Big Thanks
My Parents and Family – Thank you for no longer freaking out that I’m off the beaten path.
Judith Gerberg – Thank you for validating my career.

Business Partners
Heather Lorentz, Tyler Scriven, and Eric Bowman – Thanks for rocking.

Future Partners
****
**** Names omitted as ventures not yet public. You know who you are.
**** Thank you for trusting me to work with you. 
**** 

All of Twitter
Particularly to my follows on Twitter, you’re all good people… with the exception of @micah (who’s a douche bag). Very special thanks to Laura Fitton (@pistachio) who not only introduced me to Twitter, has been a great friend all along the way.

Friends who put up with my shit more than anyone
Josh Brodie, Sara Bert, Jordyn Cosmé, Alex Bregstein, and Rana Sobhany. Especially Rana, who sought me out even after I totally dissed her when she first introduced herself to me. 

And the rest of you who don’t like to be named, much less depicted on the Internet, thank you.

It takes more than a good person to declare a flash holiday; it takes one genuinely good person.

Outside the SXSW Bloghaus in Austin last month, some guy was hanging near the door handing out wristbands. Me, a sucker for swag, approached the guy and said, “Hey, can I have one?” He turns to me, says ’sure!’, and hands me a wrist band. “Thanks!” I said, “My name’s Michael. Who are you and what’s your story?” 

And that’s how I met Gary Vaynerchuk. Up until that moment, I hadn’t heard of Gary or winelibrary.tv. We spoke for a couple of minutes about how crazy I thought he was for answering his thousands of daily e-mails in lieu of delegating. Then it struck me as not so crazy: here’s a guy who cared so much about his job (wine) and his community that he made it his lifeblood. (I’m omitting a joke about transubstantiation right here.)

I ran into him later that night in the lobby of a hotel where about a hundred people had gathered. I went over to say hello but before I open my mouth he puts bottle of wine in my hand, “Gruen! Take this!” (I wasn’t wearing a name tag), raising another bottle to toast mine. At 2am, this man has energy.

“Gary, we’re so hanging out when we get back to New York.”

“Definitely! Now DRINK!” [sic]

…

Three days ago, I went to New York’s NextWeb Meetup and ran into Gary. Though we hadn’t talked since SXSW, he remembered me and we went right back to shooting the shit, with me making fun of his e-mailing habits.

So, it should come as no surprise that Gary could galvanize the social media world and beyond in an unedited two-minute video clip. Today is Good Person Day 2008, so spread it on.