When Grindr Can Be A Religious Experience

<encoded><p>We have heard many really creative reasons why people justify the fact they have a GRINDR profile, but 24 year old Matt Green’s really takes the cake.</p> <p> </p><p><img src="http://www.thegayuk.com/communities/8/004/009/928/388/images/4618252379.jpg" width="380" height="237" alt="The Photo Illustration ia by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast" title="The Photo Illustration ia by Emil Lendof/The Daily Beast"/></p> <p></p><p>Or maybe we should say the gefilte fish. Green is a second year rabbinical student at <a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/tags/NewYork">New York</a> City’s Hebrew Union College, and is making a name for himself as the <a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/tags/Grindr">Grindr</a> Rebbe (i.e. Rabbi). Having returned to the United States this summer after a year in Israel, Green quirkily decided to indicate that fact in his personal Grindr profile. The response, Green recalls, was overwhelming. “People were contacting me saying are you Jewish? How was Israel? Then when he mentioned his studies, instead of men hitting him up about the size of his private parts, they started firing questions about being a Jew.</p><p></p><p>When his college issued a call for this year’s Be Wise Fellowship in Entrepreneurship grants, a programme created exclusively for HUC-JIR students to creatively respond to changes in the American Jewish landscape, Green remembered his Grindr experience. Well, the parts he could talk about with his Professor. In his proposal, he described Grindr as “an LGBTQ social network known as Grindr, which uses geolocation (GPS) technology to bring people together based on their geographic location.” Hmmmm. Really Matt, but then how else could he have got a bunch of 70+ year straight Rabbis to cough up some grant money.</p><p></p><p>Matt lives in Brooklyn, which has a really high percentage of 18-44 year old Jewish men many of whom are not particularly religious, and so he got the go-ahead. Since launching his initiative in December, the Grindr Rebbe has already seen marked success in his outreach. He has a boyfriend too but we are not sure if that was one of his new converts or someone he met the old fashioned way.</p><p> </p><p><img src="http://www.thegayuk.com/communities/8/004/009/928/388/images/4618252381.jpg" width="290" height="174" alt="" title=""/></p> <p>Be warned however if you looking to meet a nice (or not nice) Jewish boy online and if you are a Shagetz and on Grindr and someone hits you up and says you are Cockamamie it is not quite what might think/want to hear. Just call him a Shmendrik and hang up.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Shagetz : a non-Jewish (Gentile) male</p><p>Cockamamie : ridiculous.</p><p>Shmendrik : the master of all jerks.</p><p></p><p>by <a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/RogerWalker-Dack">Roger Walker-Dack</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>ALSO READ:</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/5-Grindr-Fails-1/5371129">5 Grindr Fails #1</a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/5-More-Grindr-Fails/5428198">5 More Grindr Fails</a></p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.thegayuk.com/magazine/4574334751/Grindr-Ads-Infected-With-Virus-That-Autodials-%A31-A-Minute-Phone-Line/9338697">Grindr Ads Infected With Virus That Autodials £1 A Minute Phone Line</a> </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p></encoded>