Fast Forward - January 12, 2001

When You Need A Site To Kvell About Your Joy

You've gotten engaged, and, let's be honest here, you want the whole world to know. So, what's the best strategy for spreading the word? Start a phone chain? Invite everyone you know to the engagement party? Connect your mother with the town gossip? Proclaim your joy on the World Wide Web?

If the last choice suits your mood, you are not alone. OnlySimchas.com, a site launched in September by five New York-area 20-somethings, lets celebrants from around the world post photos of their happy occasions on the Internet. It provides "guest books" for site visitors to sign and an "online simcha planner" to keep track of which guests are coming and who's giving what.

While the word "simcha" denotes any joyous occasion, OnlySimchas seems focused on marriages. On a recent day, it listed 64 engagements, 63 weddings and 24 births, but only one bat mitzvah. Marriages are also central to the site's business plan: The site's president, Doron Katz, said he is developing partnerships with other Internet ventures that target the soon-to-be-hitched.

While OnlySimchas hopes to expand its audience, the site, which on a peak day registers up to 22,000 page views, currently caters to a Modern Orthodox clientele. As a result surfing it can feel like attending a yeshiva high school reunion, albeit one that takes place in cyberspace and not in a school gym.

On December 5, Caroline Rachel Pollard posted the following message to her friend Tzippy in honor of Tzippy's engagement to Mark Staum: "Hi Tzippy...a massive mazal tov 2 you and marc.... he must be such a great guy to deserve a girly like u!!!!" she wrote. "I'm so happy...keep me in your teffilos."

Or take the note Stacey Shapiro posted on November 26: "Dear Blanche and Yedidiah," she wrote to her newly married friends. "The pictures are so beautiful. Thanks for putting them up for me. We're so so sad that we couldn't be there. But we can't wait for you to join us in Eretz Yisrael. Mazel Tov! Mazel Tov!!! Love always, Stacey & Avi."

Then there is the decidedly old-media world way the site got off the ground. To promote their new venture, the founders spent $300 on posters and stuck them up throughout the tri-state area in bookstores, Jewish community centers, synagogues and even on trees. News traveled quickly. "We called up the Orthodox Union magazine to see if they wanted to write an article," Mr. Katz said. "Everybody knew about it already."

— ALIZA PHILLIPS