Word: shadchen
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...postcards from Sin City, elders in the United States are constantly happy to play an unsolicited matchmaker to their children. My Grandma, for instance, frequently keeps me updated on the Nice Jewish Boy scene at Harvard. If one is in the market for more professional meddling, there are still Shadchen, Jewish ‘matchmakers’ who arrange marriages in more traditional Jewish communities...
...growled a stubble-bearded Manhattan rabbi one day last week, "for the shadchen, business is shlecht-terrible, terrible...
Once all Jewish marriages were arranged by parents. Actual negotiations, including the all-important dowry provided by the bride's family, were handled by shadchonim-marriage brokers. Today only old-fashioned Orthodox Jews patronize the shadchen. Simplified by the emancipation of Jewish youth, his job consists in bringing together couples in a marrying mood, taking a commission (usually 5%) on the dowry...
...shadchen himself, Rabbi Wolf explained why a marriage broker is useful: ''When you meet a girl on the street or in the subway, all you see is the veneer, the varnish. Now the marriage broker investigates. He looks up the money part of the woman and investigates the man's past, his relations and his standing. The proper way to size up a person is to see if he has business with a bank. If he doesn't deal with a bank, he's no good...
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