Community Matchmaking Beats Dating Recession

Small, repeated, networked matchmaking efforts—friends' shidduchim tables, parent networks, and community programs—create a reliable pipeline of introductions and marriages inside the Orthodox Jewish community, even while most young adults report not dating. Those local practices are organized, repeatable, and can be scaled or emulated by other communities seeking to raise marriage rates and social cohesion. — Shows that social‑network institutions (not just markets or apps) can reverse macro trends like falling dating and may affect fertility, inequality, and civic cohesion, suggesting a non‑policy lever for demographic and social outcomes.