The swipe and the shadchan: navigating tradition and technology in Haredi Matchmaking

This qualitative study investigates the transformative impact of digital media on traditional matchmaking (shidduchim) within Israel's insulated Haredi community. Based on in-depth interviews with five veteran female matchmakers (shadchaniyot), the research explores the complex negotiation between communal tradition and the individualistic logic of modern dating apps. Findings reveal a fundamental role transformation for the matchmaker from gatekeeper to guide, acute challenges to religious norms of modesty, a significant generational gap in romantic expectations, and deep ambivalence toward the technology. The study concludes that the Haredi community is engaged in a sophisticated process of “technological domestication,” actively adapting digital tools to serve and reshape its enduring values. This process highlights the persistent, and even heightened, need for trusted human mediation in an increasingly automated world of relationship formation, demonstrating a dynamic interplay of tradition and modernity.