SJS, I’m with you. Problem is, these wonderful, accomplished young women can only choose from boys. And some people, the ones whose heads are in the sand and chalk the “crisis” up to demographics, actually advocate the boys starting even YOUNGER.
Rabbi Krohn, for whom I have a great deal of respect, has popularized a story about Rav Hirsch, who happily married someone older than he because for what he wanted to accomplish, he couldn’t marry a little girl. Very nice, but…ok, so these boys don’t all have to be Rav Hirsch, they just have to maximize their own potential, but are they even thinking along the lines of Rav Hirsch when it comes to their own personal development.
OK, off my soapbox 😉