One man's apikorus is another man's talmud chochom

The Nerdiest shidduch resume I’ve ever seen

by Heshy Fried

on January 9, 2013

Personal Information

Name: Michael Makovi E-mail address abqb99@r.postjobfree.com

Age 25 Height 5 7 Kohen

Place of Birth/Childhood Silver Spring, MD

Current residence New Orleans, Louisiana

Education: High School (or equivalent) Springbrook High School (public), in Silver Spring, MD

University (or equivalent) Loyola University, New Orleans Degree: Economics (BA, in progress)

Post-university (or equivalent) N/A Degree:

Which Yeshiva(ot) have you attended in Israel? Machon Meir and Yeshivat Hesder Petah Tiqwa

When? Machon Meir: August/Elul 2006 August/Elul 2009; Petah Tiqwa: August/Elul 2009 April/Nisan 2010

Which Yeshiva are you attending now? None

Present Occupation Economics BA student

Please share with us 5 qualities that most characterize you:

Loquacious,

Nerdy/geeky/dorky (a little bit of each, I reckon). You know what? I just read the following literally a few minutes ago, and I think it applies to me perfectly, so let me quote it (from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/08/the-problem-with-libertarian-women-is-not-libertarian-men.html): To be sure, I am the first to admit that libertarians are . . . quirky. Asperger’s is definitely overrepresented in the community, and with it, various nerdy obsessions. Spend a bunch of time around libertarian guys and you’re apt to learn a lot about music, and comic books, and action movies, and computer programming . . . a lot. He could lend you a book, if you want. And he’d be really happy to sit down and spend four or five hours explaining college football statistics to you. Do you want that alphabetically, or north to south?

List 5 qualities that you are looking for in a life-partner:

Honestly, I have no idea. I haven’t ever had the opportunity to date enough women to really be sure. I could make a list, but I am afraid that much of that list would be pure fantasy, without any grounding in reality. So for now, let us just say she needs to be frum, and she needs to at least be accepting of the fact that I am a nerd. Beyond that, I really don’t know, so let’s not worry about it.

Are there any qualities that would disqualify a potential spouse? Again, no idea. Well, I suppose I do have ideas, but as I said, with my lack of experience, I do not trust myself to make a reliable list, so I simply won’t make one at all. Are you Frum from birth (X) From an non-religious background

(X) Torah observant for more than 5 yrs. Torah observant for less than 5 yrs.

(X) Ger for more than 5 yrs. Ger for less than 5 yrs.

Torah learning

What you are you doing presently? Studying economics (BA) at Loyola University, New Orleans. But wait, you ask, is that Torah? Well, if we take a Maimonidean/Hirschian tack that studying the world is a means of studying He who created it, and furthermore, that Torah and science are both merely different sides of one Truth, then yes, studying economics IS studying Torah. Learning Torah full time, indefinitely Learning Torah full time, temporarily Working/studying, set learning schedule Working/studying,attending occasional Shiurim

Do you daven in a minyan during the week? Always Usually (X) Occasionally

Are you involved in any Chesed activities? Describe: None

What are some of your hobbies, interests? Back when I had time, I would religiously read computer enthusiast magazines, and I still have some $2000 worth of computer repair equipment. But I haven’t had time for that years, because outside of class, I spend most of my time doing personal reading on economics and history and political philosophy.

What do you do in your recreational time? See above.

What are your goals, aspirations? Get a graduate degree in economics (either Master’s or PhD not sure yet), and hopefully return to Israel. (I had been living in Israel for about six years before I unexpectedly got an invitation I could not refuse from Loyola University, New Orleans.) In Israel, I would like to work for a think-tank, probably the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies or the Shalem Center, both of which I have some personal connections with. However, here at Loyola, my professor is insisting that I become a professor as well. We’ll see, but one way or the other, I hope to be doing something to promote free-markets and economic liberalization in Israel.

Do you smoke? ? (X) No On rare occasions Yes

To what extent will you allow western culture into your home (ex: television, DVD s, internet, books, magazines etc.)? Please specify. Err, I just said that economics is a form of Torah. I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ll be having Western culture in my home out the wazoo.

Do you want your wife to cover her hair when married? Definitely Preferably Undecided It s up to her. Whatever she chooses, she has on whom to rely – such as Rabbis Yosef Messas and Moshe Malka of Morocco, who held that there is no obligation anymore for a woman to cover her hair. And let me quote my rabbi’s son (from http://blog.campsdeichemed.com/2012/06/pritzus-i-know-it-when-i-see-it.html): After getting married, I took for granted that my wife, who I admired and respected, grew up in a frum home where she was taught how a bas melech should dress. … I never looked at the extreme details of every woman I met, and I guess I just saw them more as a person and not a dress code. I was judging them favorably, something I was taught to do.

How do you plan on supporting your family? Graduate degree (Master’s or PhD not sure yet) in economics. Warning: I’ll be an academic, not an investment banker. So expect me to make a wage that is nowhere near six-figures.

How do you see your wife s role as a Jewish wife/mother? One of my ulpan exams once asked this, and I wrote a whole essay arguing that marriage is a contractual relationship in which whatever contractual terms explicitly agreed to by the husband and wife (whether written or oral especially the qetuba, naturally) are binding, and absent those, then any implicit contracts (i.e. minhag ha-maqom) are binding. I even cited 16th-century Dutch political theorist Johannes Althusius s work Politica, one of history’s first works of social-contract theory. I also cited Perchik s marriage proposal to Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof, in which Perchik says that marriage, like all things, is political. In short, marriage is a bilateral contract, so find me a prospective wife, and we’ll see if we can hammer out some terms to our mutual satisfaction.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being introverted and 10 being extroverted, how would you grade yourself? (N/A) Around people I don t know, I can be painfully shy, a negative 100 out of 1 to 10, but around people I do know, I am extremely verbose and extroverted, a positive 100. Out of 10, mind you.

Religious Hashkafa Chareidi/Yeshivish Dati Leumi Open Chareidi (grey) Dati Leumi Torani Charda l (X) Other In theological matters, I am generally of the left-wing Modern Orthodox wing, and I am quite close to Rabbi Marc Angel. (I even own a shirt that says Real Men Marry Rabbis, which I wear as an homage to Rabbi Benzion Uziel’s 1920 teshuva saying that women can be rabbis. Rabbi Uziel was the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine, and is Rabbi Angel’s own hero.) I am also very passionate in my love for the German Neo-Orthodox (such as Rabbis S. R. Hirsch, Yehiel Weinberg, and Eliezer Berkovits) and the Judeo-Spanish Sephardim (such as Rabbis Benzion Uziel and Haim David Halevi). See an article I wrote for Rabbi Angel, A New Hearing for Kol Ishah (http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/new-hearing-kol-ishah ). On the other hand, in the religio-politics pertaining to Eretz Yisrael, I am extremely right-wing Dati Leumi.

Will consider (please check as many as you feel are relevant)

(X) Chareidi/Yeshivish (X) Chozer B Tshuva (X) recent

(X) Open Chareidi (grey) (X) Ger (X) recent

(X) Modern Chareidi (X) Widower (X) with children (well, given that I am still a student without the ability to earn money, I am apprehensive about children, but I suppose we can say this: as long as she is willing to earn all the money, then I am fine with her children; in other words, the problem is not that she has children, but that I have no money, so I will let her figure out whether she is okay with me, but regardless, I am okay with her)

(X) Charda l (X) Divorcee (X) with children

(X) Dati Leumi Torani

(X) Dati Leumi

Family Information

Parents: (X) married separated divorced widowed

Remarried (father/ mother) underline

Are your parents Jewish? (X) Father (0.5X) Mother (see below)

Father s Name DELETED

Mother s name (include maiden) You know, if I include her maiden name, then I shall soon find all my credit cards maxed out.

Father s occupation Self-employed salesman Mother s occupation Chemist for the USFDA

Family Shul/neighborhood (include city, state, country) Oseh Shalom (Reconstructionist), Laurel, MD, USA

Number of siblings 1 Ages 28

Additional comments My father was born Jewish. My mother was raised as an Evangelical Christian and began the process to convert before she met my father. However, her conversion was Reform, and later Conservative, so I did my own conversion with the Israeli Rabbinate, which was completed in February 2007. I had begun to become observant in the summer between 10th and 11th grades. Actually, my mother has been slowly becoming observant herself, but that s its own story.

Family type: Yeshivish Modern Orthodox (X) Non-orthodox Chozer B Tshuva How long Chassidish Ashkenzic Sephardic Other:

References (at least 4)

DELETED

Feel free to use the space below to add any information or insights about yourself that will help give us a clear picture of who you are:

Frankly, I m a nerd. Expect anything and everything you say to conjure in my mind a reference to something on Simpsons, something I read in Scientific America, some sort of philosophical or technical musing or explanation. My best friends in school were all from computer programming class, and not infrequently I did forget, in the course of programming, to eat. (In fact, in eighth grade, I used my lunch break EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. to sit in the computer programming classroom.)

I am extremely extroverted, energetic, outgoing, am easily excited and amused (and enthused!), and I have a very geeky sense of humor, finding humor in obscure word plays and the like. I am also a bit of a ditz at times I am often innocently clueless and naive; Einstein s wearing fishing shorts to a wedding sounds an awful lot like me!

I grew up in America near Washington DC. I started becoming observant in high school, but I was raised with a traditional though not very halachically observant hashqafa/weltanshauung on the meaning and purpose of Torah and Judaism. In retrospect, it was very Hirschian (German Neo-Orthodox) in fact, and so becoming observant was a natural thing for me to do. I am dedicated to living a Jewish halachic life, living life as G-d intends for us, via the Torah. But I am also modern, in the Torah im Derech Eretz sense: the Torah s purpose is for it to be impressed upon all aspects of human life, and to be wedded together with all of human knowledge and civilization. Mensch-Yisroel. Years ago, I moved to Israel, and thought I had made aliyah. Already in middle school, I had said to myself G-d gave us the Land, so what I am I waiting for? . But man makes plans, and God laughs . So while I am unexpectedly located in the United States, I would like to return to Israel.

Finally, I am EXTREMELY libertarian, which pairs well with my nerdiness;. see http://xkcd.com/367:

Mouseover: Ron Paul wants to put the New Republic back on the Corusca gem standard.

Actually, I often get flak from religious girls for my deep investment in libertarianism, so let me repeat what I tell them: my mother says that when she learned chemistry, it was a deeply religious experience and she felt as if she was learning ma’aseh bereishit, how God created the universe. That is in fact how I feel about laissez-faire/libertarian Austrian School economics: it teaches all about how every individual is unique, how every individual has his own subjective desires, and how no one can ever know what another person truly wants or needs. (The central principle of Austrian School economics is the theory of marginal utility, that all economic value is purely subjective, never objective, and that all economic study must follow the approach of methodological individualism, i.e. studying group or social phenomena in terms of individual human action, not the reverse.) Any form of coercion or political use of violent force or central-planning is rendered impossible, because your every thought is pervaded by a sense of ?… (the blessing said upon seeing 600, 000 Jews, “Blessed are you God…Knower of Secrets” – i.e., when looking upon a massed crowd, remember that to God, every individual is unique).

Send me your shidduch resume for posting to abqb99@r.postjobfree.com – it doesn’t have to be as long or detailed, I’m willing to post any shidduch resume no matter what type of Jew you are.

{ 53 comments… }

s(b.)

January 9, 2013 at 7:00 pm

I’ve known him online for years, and I’ll vouch for him being a decent guy. If my little sister had any interest in a guy who’s into what he’s into, I’d totally trust him with her.

January 9, 2013 at 7:02 pm

If he wasn’t frum, I’d have a shidduch for him.

January 9, 2013 at 7:03 pm

word

Michael Makovi

January 9, 2013 at 7:14 pm

Wait, s(b.), who are you? I can tell neither from your username nor from your thumbnail.

s(b.)

January 9, 2013 at 8:35 pm

Sarah Bee of EJ/NYC.

Delita

January 9, 2013 at 7:50 pm

I second that sentiment! Mak’s a total sweetheart.

Michael Makovi

January 9, 2013 at 8:02 pm

Thank you, Delita!

On a totally unrelated note, I always love to break out into song whenever someone says something that reminds me of song lyrics, even if the song has nothing to do with the subject of conversation. Therefore: .

Anonymous

January 10, 2013 at 4:50 am

my husband does that

ModernOrthodoxObserver

January 9, 2013 at 7:05 pm

I’m a straight male and I would marry this man.

January 9, 2013 at 7:05 pm

Maybe you should try back when he officially becomes old by BT shidduch standards (age 32 is the current age for males)

Michael Makovi

January 9, 2013 at 7:20 pm

Heshy, I’m thinking a mail-order bride. I figure a combination of these two:

(1) Newspaper article about the Samaritans: “Ancient community seeks brides abroad”

(2) John Michael Montgomery singing “Sold”

Michael Makovi

January 9, 2013 at 7:16 pm

ModernOrthodoxObserver, thank you! And by the way, so would I. I sometimes spontaneously sing, “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7BQRGXFLJs. The other day, an old classmate from the Hebrew University, one who has never seen me sing it, emailed me and told me that “I Feel Pretty” reminds her of me.

Q.

January 9, 2013 at 8:02 pm

LOL. This is great. You wouldn’t be interested in a straight married 38 year old man with 4 kids. Would you?

Michael Makovi

January 9, 2013 at 8:13 pm

Only if he’s willing to be the one getting a sex-change.

Michael Makovi

January 9, 2013 at 8:12 pm

Oh, fiddlesticks, in my shiddukh resume, I should have mentioned that since I was talking about myself, and not describing my prospective mate at all, that therefore, my approach is this:

Girls, read my resume, and whichever one of you breaks out into, contact me.

Then again, I enjoy watching romantic films, so I might have some unrealistic notions. Similarly, for those who remember the proposal scene from “A Beautiful Mind”, my someday wife might need “a moment to redefine [her] girlish notions of romance”.

And what I especially love is that I can post as many comments here as I want, and no one can accuse me of hogging the thread. After all, I’m that I think this entire blog post is about me.

port yid

January 11, 2013 at 6:19 pm

would you consider the other white meat? sephadi?

Liora

January 9, 2013 at 8:46 pm

If I was 20 I would marry this boy! Too cute

Michael Makovi

January 9, 2013 at 9:37 pm

Nu, so how old are you? Notice that nowhere did I ever say that I give a rat’s patootie about her age.

January 10, 2013 at 2:35 am

“So find me a prospective wife, and we ll see if we can hammer out some terms to our mutual satisfaction.”

Borat claims he negotiated from fifty camels, down to a single barrel of kerosene!

“You know, if I include her maiden name, then I shall soon find all my credit cards maxed out.”

LifeLock you fool!

Yochanan

January 10, 2013 at 5:11 am

“Qetuba”.

You realize it starts with a Kaf, right?

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 7:17 am

Doh! Typo. But yes, thank you.

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 7:18 am

Homer: Look kids! I just got my party invitiations back from the printers.

Lisa: [reading the invitation] “Come to Homer’s BBBQ. The extra B is for BYOBB.”

Bart: What’s that extra B for?

Homer: It’s a typo.

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 7:20 am

Oh, some kind public servant already uploaded it to YouTube: .

Zvi Lampert

January 10, 2013 at 5:47 am

Most nerds I know are somewhat insecure and awkward. You not only embrace your nerdiness, you revel in it, which is actually quite charming .It’s refreshing to see someone who really knows who he is and is so comfortable in his own skin. I wish you the best. -ZL

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 11:33 am

Thank you!

Catholic Mom

January 10, 2013 at 7:48 am

Getting a Ph.D. from a Jesuit university? Alas, I have no daughters.

toldos aron

January 10, 2013 at 8:17 am

if he`s a swinger i mean into wife swapping then i have a good thing for him.

Sol

January 10, 2013 at 9:38 am

Heshy, you’re a good bloke for doing PR for him…well done.

Mak- Hope you find your sweet geekette soon b’ezrat Hashem.

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 11:32 am

Thank you! And ditto for you, mutatis mutandis!

Roch

January 10, 2013 at 10:31 am

love that you referenced motel from fiddler! brilliant!

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 11:32 am

Thank you!

shosh

January 10, 2013 at 11:26 am

So if u won’t have kids, will u be using birth control? Please be specific .

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 11:31 am

I will negotiate that with her. I don’t want to make any pronouncements without consulting her, and since I haven’t met her yet, I’m in a bit of a bind, don’t you see?

Ex bochur

January 10, 2013 at 12:43 pm

Michael, take it from someone who has been there, done that: there is no need to wear your intellectual quirkiness on your sleeve. I’m not saying to act stupid or conformist, but you must realize that women want a guy who is “masculine” in the traditional sense of that term.

I knew a guy who was doing a PhD in a tremendously geeky topic who also happened to be popular with women. But when someone asked him what he did he would be vague: “I’m in grad school” etc.

Also: stop befriending women. The friend-zone thing is real.

There is much more to be said on this topic, but that is the roshei perakim of the lessions learned from my regrettable decade-long stint as a self-styled single frum intellectual.

Michael Makovi

January 10, 2013 at 2:02 pm

I don’t know how to act like anyone but myself. And even if I did, I wouldn’t want to.

By th

Contact this candidate