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Lox Continued from Page 1
say that they were on dating apps.”
Lorraine and Kevitch were
earnest in their intentions to
create Lox Club: More than
creating a dating app for partic-
ularly discerning users, they
wanted to make sure their users
were “in it for the right reasons.”
They designed an app that
required users’ Instagram
and LinkedIn accounts to be
vetted, not for followers, but to
make sure they held the Jewish
values that were instilled in
them: “family-oriented” and
“career-driven.” And just like the smoked,
cured salmon of the app’s
namesake, Lox Club member-
ship doesn’t come cheap,
costing anywhere between $8
and $12 a month.

But despite wanting the
users to take the app seriously,
Lorraine and Kevitch were
not interested in the app being
self-serious. The entire concept
of Lox Club was built around
a fictional narrative Kevitch
created about a star-crossed
couple and a speakeasy hidden
in a deli that shared the app’s
name. For Lorraine and Kevitch,
who see their app from an aerial
perspective, Lox Club’s wins
are clear. The founders attend
friends’ weddings, receive
messages and see Instagram
posts from lovebirds who found
their match on the app.

“That’s like our superpower:
People are almost proud to say
that they’ve met on Lox Club,”
Lorraine said.

Though Lox Club’s self-pro-
claimed exclusivity is what
Lorraine and Kevitch believe
separates it from other dating
apps, it may also be its greatest
challenge. Users aren’t sucked into the
vortex of scrolling and swiping
— they can only see six to 12
profiles every several hours on
the app. And beyond just a limit
in the number of users one can
swipe through each day, there
just seems to be a limit in users,
period. One user, Michael, a photog-
rapher in New York, has been
using Lox Club for about six
months. A few weeks ago, the
app notified him that there were
no more users in New York and
instead displayed the profiles of
users in Philadelphia, and even
Los Angeles. And within this
smaller dating pool, Michael
noticed some homogeneity
among its users: Many of them
are in STEM professions, own
their own businesses and have
significantly more Instagram
followers than users on the
other dating app he uses, Hinge.

Lorraine and Kevitch are
aware of this; they’ve noticed
that Lox Club members are also
commonly lawyers, doctors and
consultants, mostly in their 20s
and 30s.

“It is a little intimidating,”
Michael said. “Would they be
OK with dating a creative who
doesn’t make a ton of money?”
The centering of career
ambitions on the app was
discouraging to Michael, who
felt like a “robot” when talking
about career goals. He felt like
people talking about their jobs
was contrary to the app’s goal
of not taking itself too seriously.

“Out of all the [apps] I’ve
used, Lox Club definitely feels
like the most serious,” he said. “I
can’t think of any other dating
app where front and center, is
career ambitions.”
Lorraine and Kevitch wanted
to “avoid the elitist mentality,”
but given some user’s experi-
ence, they may have missed the
mark in that regard.

Among the sea of Davids
and Bens on the app — and
boy, are there a lot of Davids
and Bens — the profiles seemed
to follow a few trends: venture
capitalists, Wharton grads,
men in button-up shirts posing
holding big freshly caught fish
Alec Lorraine 
Courtesy of Alec Lorraine
or golf clubs in awkwardly
cropped photos. It all cements
that Lox Club serves a partic-
ular clientele, just maybe not
the one Lorraine and Kevitch
had in mind.

But if even Kevitch admits
that dating apps are “cringe-
worthy,” and if Lox Club is
subject to user critiques, what
does it mean for a dating app to
be successful?
Some Jewish matchmakers
in Philadelphia, whose job it
is to connect young Jews with
romantic partners, believe that
many people are simply sick
of dating apps, which is why
they turn to more specifically
tailored dating opportunities
like matchmaking.

“People with the apps delete
them en masse, or they take
a week-long break from them,
or they farm out swiping to
somebody else,” said Danielle
Selber, assistant director of
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Austin Kevitch
Photo by Lindsey Kevitch
Tribe12 and founder of the
organization’s matchmaking
initiative. But despite dating app
burnout, according to Erika
Kaplan, senior matchmaker at
Three Day Rule Matchmaking
in Philadelphia, matchmakers
still see dating apps as a viable
choice for those looking for
love. “We don’t knock the apps,”
she said. “I think that there
are plenty of relationships that
come out of the apps.”
Selber described online
dating as a “roulette,” an unpre-
dictable, unreliable means of
meeting a partner. But for love,
something just as unpredict-
able, niche dating apps can be
helpful for those looking for
something specific from a
partner. “There’s room for everyone
to play,” Selber said. “If you’re
not for someone, you’re for no
one.” Ultimately, Lox Club doesn’t
need to be for everyone. In the
realm of dating, when users are
trying to find a date or a partner
in an unexpected place, failure
and flops are to be expected.

For Lorraine and Kevitch,
who are able to see the fruits of
Lox Club’s labor in weddings
and Instagram posts, Lox Club
is a triumph because it has
connected people who may not
have otherwise connected.

Though Lox Club might
present limited options for
some, or might be off-putting
for others, it’s changed the lives
of a lucky few. And there’s no
denying the success in that. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com |
215-832-0741 JEWISHEXPONENT.COM