Matzo Ball

The Matzo Ball is an annual Christmas Eve nightlife event and party held in a number of major cities in the United States and Canada targeted primarily at young Jewish singles and organized by the Society of Young Jewish Professionals.

The name of the event is frequently styled as MatzoBall or misspelled as Matzah Ball or MatzahBall.

There are a number of competing social events in Jewish communities throughout the U.S. and Canada held that same night. In addition, Matzo Ball and similar spellings are also used as the names for a variety of other, unrelated Jewish community events in particular regions.

Historically, Jews in Europe would hide in their homes and villages during the Christmas holiday, for fear of violence from locals. In the United States, Christmas and Christmas Eve typically serve as times of family gathering and prayer for Christians and many others.

The atmosphere of religious liberalism and tolerance in the United States has offered American Jews the opportunity to enjoy the holiday period.

At the same time, many American Jews do not engage in the same family-gathering activities on the Christmas holiday that Christians in the United States do.

With Christmas Day a work holiday throughout the United States, there is a space of unfilled free time during which much of American commerce and society is not functioning, and which could lead to a sense of alienation or loneliness for American Jews.

Typical contemporary activities were usually limited to "Chinese and a movie"—consuming a meal at a Chinese restaurant, which tend to be open for business on the Christmas holiday, and watching a movie at the theater or at home, stereotypically a rerun of It's a Wonderful Life.

With the rise of the Matzo Ball and similar local events, the night of December 24 has become an opportunity to transform this otherwise brief period into one made to gather, socialize, catch up with old friends, network, drink, flirt, and romance. The event has turned Christmas Eve into a matchmaking or dating event for young Jews and "the biggest singles night of the year." The event is an opportunity to meet "'a lot of like-minded people dressed up to have a good time, network, find their mate'."

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