Rabbi Says JDate Lawsuit Against JSwipe is Not Kosher
by Shiryn Ghermezian
A lawsuit filed by JDate against competing Jewish digital dating company JSwipe would be frowned on by Jewish law, a rabbi recently told Forbes in a report on the legal wrangle.
“From a Judaic ethics standpoint, this lawsuit is inappropriate,” said Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, Dean of the Institute of American and Talmudic Law.
“Here we are talking about creating Jewish families that will have Jewish children. All the more so that we should encourage competition if the aggregate number of matches increases,” Yaffe said further.
JDate’s parent company, Spark Networks, filed the lawsuit late last year against JSwipe claiming an intellectual property infringement over the use of the letter “J” for a Jewish dating brand.
According to Forbes, JDate also claimed that it owns a patent on software that “confidentially determines matches and notifies users of mutual matches in feelings and interests,” a prominent function of JSwipe.
Rabbi Yaffe explained that Jewish law allows unlimited competition for services that promote Jewish continuity. JSwipe, JDate and similar Jewish dating apps increase intrafaith marriages, resulting in more Jewish children to carry on the heritage, according to Yaffe.