Defend Exclusively-Jewish Marriage

Summary
* JWed is the leading exclusively-Jewish dating site and we believe religion-based dating sites should have the right to exclusively serve customers of their own faith. 
* However, Google just rejected a JWed advertisement because our website is "exclusively-Jewish".  Shockingly, Google said we need to remove "Exclusively Jewish" everywhere from our website in order to get our advertisement approved.  (this incident is what compelled us to go public on this issue)
* In addition, Facebook does not allow us to target Jewish users even though they have this information. They believe it is somehow racist or illegal to target ads to people of a particular religion. This makes it much harder for us or other faith-based organizations to stay exclusive to the religion they serve. 
* The dating industry and the country increasingly view a Jewish-marriage-only policy as racist and discriminatory.
* Websites have been unilaterally shut-down in recent weeks by large corporations for their political beliefs, suppressing their freedom of speech. 
* All of this is happening as antisemitism is increasing in the United States at an alarming rate.
* Unless we fight back, we believe JWed will be further targeted if we stay exclusively Jewish.
* Donate today to our legal & PR fund to help ensure we can stay exclusively-Jewish and to ensure our website is not further targeted by large corporations.  

We are committed to staying an exclusively-Jewish site and remain committed to celebrating religious freedom. Just as a Christian or Muslim dating site should be free to exclusively serve members of their own religion, we should be free to exclusively serve the Jewish people. Our freedom to operate is under threat and we need your help today!

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What Happened?
On August 18th, 2017, Google rejected a JWed ad, not simply because of the content of the ad, but because our website is "Exclusively Jewish".

The initial rejection included language of how we are not allowed to target specific ethnicities or races with an advertisement. That's concerning and perplexing in itself. How does a Jewish dating site advertise to Jews? Do they want us to advertise to everyone?

On that day, we called Google - twice. On each occasion, two separate representatives explicitly told us the problem isn't necessarily the ad - it's our business practice. They advised us to remove exclusively Jewish everywhere from our website!  They said as long as our website states that it is "exclusively Jewish", then it is likely our ad will not be fully approved.

WOW. 

Needless to say, we won't be changing our exclusively-Jewish policy. Here are screenshots of the ad we submitted and the rejection e-mail:



Why Does it Matter?
Because we know what's coming next if we don't come together and ACT NOW...

The Industry View
We've been offered to be bought out by a large well-known dating site in the past but we did not sell because the buyer thought our Jewish-only policy was discriminatory. They wanted to open up JWed to everyone and believed so much in their position that they wanted us to be held liable if we were ever sued for discrimination during the time which we owned the company. Needless to say, we didn't sell. In addition, in our dealings with the Silicon Valley technology and investment community, we are regularly met with surprise that our site is Jewish-only; most thinking that it's discriminatory or racist to serve only one religion. Isn't that the point of a "Jewish" dating site?

Recent Politics & Censorship
The recent political environment is highly charged. The result is that several large companies have shut down websites who have a message they don't agree with. Just take a look here, here, and here. While we find the content of two of these sites to be repulsive, it should be an extremely shocking and concerning development to all freedom-loving people that sites can simply be shut down at the whim of large companies. What's most shocking, in the case of Rebel Media, it's important to mention that this is NOT a neo-Nazi or white nationalist site. It's simply a conservative site which was founded and operated by Ezra Levant, a conservative Jew! 

What's to stop companies from shutting down our website next because they don't agree with our views?

War on Jewish Freedom
In addition to the more recent censorship of websites, antisemitism has been on the rise in Western countries including in the United States over the last decade. Intact America is working to ban Brit Milah, BDS's campaign against Israel is growing, and anti-Semitism has doubled on college campuses. It's even worse in Europe with Jewish Day Schools being threatened to shut down. All of this, happening long before the recent election. Jewish freedom is clearly at threat and we need to take action TODAY to preserve our rights. 

Reliance on Large Companies
Nearly every technology company relies on Google, Apple, and Amazon to run their online business. These companies essentially have monopoly power, and at a whim, they could shut us down. How can we uphold Freedom of Speech and Religion and still operate under the threat of being shut down because we stand for our religion? This is an issue that we need to bring to the forefront of discussion in this country NOW before we all lose our freedoms.

Bottom Line
Some in American culture have deemed censorship of views they don't agree with to be perfectly acceptable, and it's clear based on our dealings with dating site industry executives, that Silicon Valley believes our site is discriminatory because we are exclusively-Jewish. Google took the first step in taking action against us and they weren't shy about telling us why. Bottom line – many believe that promotion of Jewish-only marriage (and preserving religious freedom) is discriminatory and as such we are at risk of being shut down permanently.

What's Next?
It's clear where this is going UNLESS WE GET YOUR SUPPORT TODAY. We must rally the Jewish community around us to support our freedom of religion and right to run a business for members of a single religion. Jewish law compels a Jew to only marry another Jew. If large technology companies shut us down, then we will lose our freedom of religion - IN AMERICA! Can you believe it?

But our concern doesn't stop there. It's our belief that if the political environment does not change - we will one day be legally compelled to accept members of other religions or else...

What Will JWed Do?
We believe if we don't take action in the public sphere and win in the court of public opinion, we will invariably be shut-down at some point in the not-so-distant future. Here's our action plan:

Rally the Troops
This GoFundMe campaign is our initial effort at rallying the community around us. In addition to fundraising, we are looking for leaders, advocates, and other partners in the community who can ensure that we are fully-staffed and fully-funded to keep JWed Jewish and keep JWed up and running. 

Tip of the Spear
This incident should be a wake-up call to the Jewish community and all religious minorities. JWed is ready and willing to be the tip of the spear in this fight to ensure religious freedom for all. We could simply change our policy and continue to quietly make a living but the stakes are much higher than this. We know what's coming. It's time to defend religious freedom.

What Will We Do with the Money?
Our commitment to you is that any money we raise will directly go to support this cause.  We will use the funds for the following:

Legal Fund
Considerable cost is involved in just making sure we say the right thing to protect ourselves and preserve YOUR rights. We will make a considerable investment to review all of our policies and terms to make it harder for us to be targeted while sticking with our commitment of staying Jewish-only and supporting religious freedom. In addition, devising a plan of action to raise awareness of this issue will require considerable legal consultation.

Most importantly, if things don't change, we need to be prepared to address action against us by large tech companies or individuals. It's important we have an ample legal fund so we are always ready to take action and defend ourselves and principles of religious freedom at a moment's notice.

Public Relations
We will undoubtedly need to run an extensive public relations campaign to raise awareness of the cause of Jewish and religious freedom and respond to critics. Our goal is to win this battle in public and garner the support of media and Jewish politicians. By doing so, we expect companies and individuals to respect the right of Jews to marry Jews and support others right to religious expression.

Advertising
Google's rejection of our ad and potentially others like it will require us to advertise via other means which may not be as cost-effective. We will need to allocate resources to other advertising channels to remain active.

Screening Activities
Although our site is intended for Jewish singles only, we have never been able to guarantee this. Our customer service faces a constant battle trying to reject and weed out profiles which don't meet our criteria. Sometimes profiles slip through and we can only remove them after they've been in touch with our members. We will use a portion of the funds raised to improve our screening procedures to ensure we stay Jewish-only.

Free Subscriptions
Not everyone can afford our monthly subscription fee so we've established the Jewish Marriage Fund which allows us to grant free subscriptions to those in need. Any excess funds raised will be allocated towards this program.

A Final Word
It's our commitment to the Jewish community that we will not compromise on our values. If it comes to it, we are prepared to take this up to the Supreme Court. We are motivated by serving the Jewish community. That being said, money is a real issue and as a small organization, we do not have the means to take this challenge up on our own. We need the support of the community and that means YOU. Every dollar counts.

Ben Rabizadeh
President, JWed.com

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* Please donate to our cause TODAY and share this campaign with your friends and family.

** If you want to help but cannot donate money today, please spread the word and connect us with leaders in the community who can become our advocates. Ideally, we would like to partner up with a large non-profit organization for this effort.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT