San Diego (special) -- Of course, Robin Glickman and Jonathan (Joth) Layton are delighted about their upcoming wedding at Congregation Beth Israel on Sunday. There are 28 women not related to either the bride nor the groom who are almost as happy about the Glickman-Layton marriage.

They are the matchmakers of Jewish Family Service's "Meet Your Match" program, a non-profit organization which tries to help ensure Jewish continuity by bringing together for the purpose of matrimony eligible Jewish men and women with similar life styles and interests.

Since 1995 when it began as "Rebbitzin's Friends," the Meet Your Match program had been in a learning mode, according to coordinator Sondra Berk. However, with Glickman and Layton becoming the organization's first couple ready to tie the knot "and at least three other couples likely to be engaged before summer," Berk believes the organization can declare that it has developed the right system for promoting Jewish marriages.

After Glickman's 10-year first marriage ended in divorce, "I was at a point in my life that I really didn't know how to date anymore...and I really wanted to meet somebody who was Jewish," she said. 

But not just anyone who was Jewish, Glickman, 38, added. Her potential Mr. Right needed to have a job, enjoy the active life style, like to travel, be tall and be ready to have a family. "It was okay if he already had children as long as he wanted to have more with me," she said. Layton, 37, a bachelor, was equally determined to find someone who shared his enthusiasm for the active life. Both filled out Meet Your Match questionnaires that probed such issues as their interests, their medical conditions, whether they smoked, their religious affiliations, how they would describe themselves and how they would describe their ideal match. Each of the questionnaires was assigned to a pair of matchmakers,who then met with the

MET THEIR MATCH--John and Robin Glickman  were introduced through the "meet your match" program of San Diego's Jewish Family Service.

applicant for 45 minutes to ask him/her even more probing questions like "what relationship were you in previously and why did it break up?" and "what do you want to be doing five years from now?" Berk said.

"The interview is extremely personal and extremely important," she added.

Glickman, executive director of Educational Enrichment Systems -- a non profit organization providing child care at six San Diego County locations -- said she appreciated this in-depth matchmaking process because "it wasn't a dating service; I felt like it was the old-fashioned way."

"Merry (Eisenger), my matchmaker, really became a friend," Glickman said. "I felt like she was really going to look for somebody for me. Everyone else, as soon as I became single, they wanted to fix me up, but they just wanted to fix me up with anybody who was single and Jewish. It wasn't like they were looking at my criteria."

Layton, an aerostructures engineer with B. F. Goodrich Company (formerly Rohr Industries), said he had been "doing the Reader (a local weekly newspaper) scene, and had been meeting people all along the way." But after seeing Meet Your Match literature at the Jewish Community Center, he decided to call the organization (at 619-260-6910) and request a questionnaire.

"After about four weeks went by they gave me a follow up call and asked 'Are you interested?' because I didn't return the application, so they gave me a push," Layton said. "So I put my application in."

After he was interviewed by matchmaker Lee Levy, a file with Layton's photograph was put into the "Men's Book," that only the 28 Matchmakers have access to for reference. Levy prepared a brief synopsis about Layton and at the organization's weekly meeting described him generally to the other Matchmakers.

"He signed up in January and he got the call in April, so it took a long time for them to find the perfect person for him," Glickman said about her future husband. "He was waiting for me to get a divorce." Only one week after Glickman put in her application, "Merry called me, so apparently as soon as she met me she knew that Joth was the one."

When the matchmaker called, she asked Glickman if she knew Layton and whether it would be okay for him to call her? No, Glickman said, she didn't know him. Yes, let him call. Next Layton received a phone call from his matchmaker, letting him know there was someone who seemed just right.

"It was weird to get the phone call," Layton said. "There was someone saying, 'Hi, remember me? Well I found a perfect match." Here I was 36 years old and practicing on my own for a while and somebody out of the blue whom I hardly know saying 'Oh, I found the person' in a casual kind of voice. It was kind of unsettling."

But Layton called Glickman and they agreed to meet on the morning of April 27, 1997 to go on a bike ride. 

"We met down at Mission Bay and we did a road trip, up to Del Mar," Layton said.

"Thirty-six miles," Glickman said. "That wasn't hard for me, but I didn't look the part," she added. "We started probably about 9 a.m. which was kind of late, but I wanted to make sure that I looked good, and then I put the helmet on and that was it. I showed him my hair before I put the helmet on."

"She looked okay!" vouched Layton enthusiastically.

"We weren't trying to set a pace; we wre riding side by side, and we talked quite a bit," Layton said. Occasionally, one or the other would sprint ahead, but they adjusted their riding paces to each other. "It went smootly and when we came back we decided we would have lunch together."

They went to Layton's house in Clairemont, where he barbecued some steaks.

"He is a great cook," Glickman said.

"When I left that day I wasn't sure if I would hear from him," she added. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to, or if I would. I just didn't know really how I felt, but then he did call during the week and asked me out for the weekend. We had a Saturday night date. I went out of town that week and when I came back he called on Friday, and I broke a 'rule'; I went out with him Friday, even though we had a Saturday night date. You're not supposed to do that, right?

"So we went down to La Jolla and watched the sunset while he climbed People's Wall (below the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art). Joth is a climber also. I told him I wasn't and didn't plan on being, so he knew that upfront also....I think by the end of that weekend, I was pretty excited about him and he was pretty excited too, and then he got scared, pulled back a little, like men do."

"We went through a few cycles, learning and pulling away," Layton said.

While couples are dating, their names are put aside in a separate file by the Meet Your Match organization. But if they decide to stop dating, their names are returned to the "active" list.

Glickman confided her feelings to her Matchmaker, but Layton, whose relationship with his Matchmaker was"business like," was more taciturn. 

At any event, by Oct. 26th the relationship had progressed to the point that Layton suggested they go watch the sunset, again at People's Wall. 

While they sat on a bench, he proposed.

"I was really blown away," Glickman confided. "I was hoping--we had been talking about getting a lot more serious; saying 'I love you' and talking about different things like how we might raise children, but not necessarily our children. It was getting to the point that I was hoping it would happen. And it did. I was really blown away."

Both of them had careers and both owned their own homes. Where to live? They decided to try living at each other's house for a week, without going back to their own, to see if they could imagine living in the other one.

"I decided I could live there and I felt he would be happier living at his home," Glickman said. "So for Chanukah, first night, I decided to surprise him with a nice romantic gift. I had ordered return address labels with our new last name "Robin and Joth Layton" and his address. Also I got myself a garage door opener for me to park in his garage."

Glickman since has sold her house. They managed to survive the usual pre wedding problems of cutting down the guest list to manageable size. They've also met with Rabbi Jonathan Stein, who will perform the ceremony this Sunday And they are planning a honeymoon in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

"We'll do a little of everything--skiing, snow shoeing, cross country," Layton said.

How would they counsel other singles who might want to try Meet Your Match? 

"I think it is important to not play games and only sign up if you are really ready for a relationship," Glickman said. "If you just want to date, go somewhere else.

"I think it is important for people to know that this is really confidential and it is really safe and I highly recommend it, if you are ready to settle down and find that special person," she added. "And also you have to have patience."

Layton said: "The other thing that strikes me is that through the process of the questionnaire and the interview you get to know yourself and some of the trends that maybe you have been doing in your past relationships.

"It is important that before you go through that process, by the time you get to your first date, that you have a good idea of what you are looking for, what you want and to demand that of yourself.

"There are a lot of people out there," Layton added, "but if you are getting ready to get serious, then make sure you demand for yourself those things that are important to you."

For him, Layton said, "I realized that Judaism was something that needed to be important in my life, and that is why I chose this angle rather than KSON or the Reader."

Both Layton and Glickman are active in the Young Jewish Network of Congregation Beth Israel. Additionally Glickman serves on the steering committee of the Young Leadership Division of the United Jewish Federation.

For a wedding gift, the Meet Your Match organization already has presented the couple with a hand crafted mezuzah.

After 1996 when the organization was taken under Jewish Family Service's auspices, the emphasis was on developing a plan, said Berk, who serves as co-coordinator with Rona Subotnik of Meet Your Match.

"The first year, it was trial and error," she said. "But by 1997 we developed the exact plan we have now, and it's a good program. We've polished the plan so now it is shining and working.

"We have excellent matchmakers, proper forms, the right questions," Berk said. "The quality of matchmakers has improved with time. It took a couple of years to get it perfect, but the system works now."

They also have critical mass. When Berk was interviewed last week, there were 420 singles signed up for the program ranging in age from 20's to above 50. Berk said that in the age category of 20's to 39, women outnumber men by 55 percent to 45 percent. 

The ratio increases with age: It is about 70 percent women among those between the ages of 40 and 49, and 80 percent women aged 50 or over.

One proof of the success of the program is how news of it has spread across the country. "Charlotte, N.C. and Indianapolis, Ind., are copying our forms," Berk says. "I think we are on the cutting edge of what is happening across the United States."

When Layton stomps the glass beneath his foot, there will be many people wishing him and his bride--as well as the Meet Your Match organization-- the heartiest of mazel tovs.