ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, December 30, 1996              TAG: 9612300113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-6  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: Associated Press

NOSH CAFE: IT'S ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU VERKLEMPT

What started as a quest to find a partner for their son has become a continuing project for Herman and Lonnie McLeod.

``I asked him, `How's your love life?''' Lonnie McLeod recalled. ``And he said, `Mom, I just don't know where to meet Jewish girls.' Well, my husband and I looked at each other. This sounded like the opportunity to do something.''

And they did.

The idea of matchmaking, of watching love blossom, was irresistible for the McLeods. So about a year ago, they created the Nosh Cafe, a coffeehouse for Jewish singles that meets twice a month at Kempsville Conservative Synagogue.

Here, the gregarious couple mixes up Jewish oldsters, youngsters, divorcees and never-marrieds. They all get to know each other with the couple dashing around as activities directors - organizing events, and meeting, greeting and introducing.

As for their son, Miss Right hasn't come along yet, Lonnie McLeod said.

But lightning has struck at the Nosh. On Dec. 22, the matchmakers attended the wedding of the first couple to meet at a Nosh Cafe evening and fall in love.

Kathy Goldstein and Mark Silverman stood at the Temple Israel in Norfolk and exchanged rings under the chuppah, or wedding canopy.

Silverman's mother, Helene, told her son about the Nosh Cafe last January.

``I said to him, Mark, there's this Nosh Cafe you ought to go to. Maybe you'll meet a nice Jewish girl there,'' Helene Silverman recalled. She had her reasons for nudging her son to the Nosh. ``One of the things that makes life easier is if you're with someone that has a background similar to your own.''

Mark met Kathy one night at the Nosh, then asked her to lunch. They dated over the next six months, and were engaged by August.

They were a match born out of the concept that the couple that noshes together stays together.

Nosh means ``a little something to eat'' in Yiddish, Lonnie McLeod said. ``So we have coffee and soda, a little cookie, cake, veggie dip or pretzels. And they come and talk.''

In one year, the Nosh Cafe has grown to include a phone list of about 250 Jewish singles. There are nurses, teachers, architects, doctors and truck drivers. Subgroups have formed - singles who enjoy going to nightspots or whose children have become playmates.

The noshers say they enjoy being able to get together and look each other over.

``This way, you see what you get rather than just a want ad,'' said one 40-ish woman. And after 20 years without a husband, she said she's looking for friends in addition to dates.

``I'd like to meet people to go to dinner with or to the movies,'' she said, ``male or female.''

Lonnie McLeod says she's fielded calls from Atlanta, Boston and Bethesda, Md. - inquiries about starting new Nosh Cafes.

``We have visions of this thing going international,'' she said. ``There's no reason we can't do Nosh Cafe London, Nosh Cafe Rome.''

LENGTH: Medium:   67 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. 1. Kathy Goldstein waits for her fiance, Mark 
          Silverman, prior to their wedding earlier this month. The two met at
          the Nosh Cafe, a singles gathering for Jews. 2. Lonnie McLeod dances
          with her husband, Herman McLeod, during a December Nosh Cafe singles
          gathering.