We’ve all heard the scare tactics and fear mongering from the ads proclaiming a certain amount of girls wont get married R”L if the boys dont start shidduchim earlier. The analogy of shidduch island with 100 boys and girls yet there will be more married boys than girls etc. Blaming boys who get married at 23 as the reason one girl will be single forever. The shidduch crisis has been used as a propaganda to scare and try to change the current approach to shidduchim in the yeshivish baal habatish circles.
The Yated Neeman Pesach issue featured an article by Shadchan Reb Tzadok Katz of Lakewood, where he takes those spreading these fears, to task. Whether there is or isn’t a shidduch crisis is not the point, he says “lets concede there is a crisis and the numbers of the age gap theory are correct, still the fact that it is being pushed into everyone’s face has exacerbated the issue. Simply put the more scared and worried girls and their parents are about the shortage of boys the more vulnerable they become. The result is they allow themselves to be taken advantage of and threatened by those redding shidduchim to give answers within 48 hours after getting a yes from a boy. Worried that they wont get another yes they give an answer with out doing as much research as they would like. The feeling of desperation causes parents to lower the bar and compromise in areas they should not compromise in. They must be allowed and comfortable to say no and given the time to thoroughly validate their decision with fact checking and research. Messages that One out of ten girls will never get married are hurtful, lacking in sensitivity and do nothing to help those in the parsha. Such messages play on the hearts of girls and have parents crying asking weather their daughters will get married.
The campaign has made the situation worse by causing boys and their parents to be pickier, boys are taking advantage and going out for longer and longer since they are told they have an upper hand in this heavy girls market.
Rabbi Katz agrees that boys should be getting married at a younger age but the way it is being presented to the public is backfiring. He stressed girls should not panic and worry they will never get married. They should not allow themselves to be taken advantage and terrorized by someone redding a shidduch, the stress and panic has changed the dynamics of the frum dating scene. It is time we go back to the way it used to be when the threatening and competitive atmosphere that prevades todays shidduch world was almost non existent.
In response to the article it appears the ads regarding the age gap issue have been toned down.
(from the partial view)