Craig Steinberg married Sandra Walter in the fall, marking his departure from a Jewish singles scene in Washington that is, he says, "in transition."

"Synagogues and community centers have not been having events," the 41-year-old from Rockville says. "There aren't as many opportunities to meet people."

Nevertheless, the Steinbergs met at the 2005 Gefilte Fish Gala, an annual Dec. 24 event geared toward Jewish singles and young professionals in the District.

Opportunities to meet members of the opposite sex seem to be rising, though, as the singles community increasingly makes use of Internet dating sites to interact, says Steinberg. He and his wife both have siblings who met their spouses online, and when the Steinbergs first met, they, in fact, recognized one another from JDate.

Reston's Neil Rothberg also met his betrothed through JDate. The popularity of online services, says the 46-year-old, reflects the overall role of the Internet in a modern lifestyle: "People communicate online every day."

Rockville's Andrea Cohen, who met her fiance through JDate in 2006, agrees. The site, she says, owes much of its popularity to being "a medium [people] are comfortable with." For this reason, she says it is especially popular among younger Jews.

As youth, family and young professionals program director at Congregation Adas Israel in the District, Elie Greenberg has noticed the migration of the singles community toward online services in lieu of direct institutional programming. Although his synagogue holds monthly singles events that regularly draw crowds of more than 200, he says local events, especially in the suburbs, are weaker.

"They offer programs, but they don't get as big of a turnout. It's harder for them to reach out," says Greenberg, who attributes his program's success to his congregation's size and central location, near a Metro station.

The emergence of JDate is the prime reason that the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington no longer sponsors singles events geared to young adults.

"Everyone's online now," says Selma Sweetbaum, director of the adult division at the Rockville center, pointing to disappointing attendance at the center's last Singles Expo in 2005 as a sign of that migration.

But Sweetbaum emphasizes that many younger singles meet and socialize through the softball and other sports leagues that the center sponsors.

There's no singles group at the JCC of Northern Virginia, either. Carla Rosenfeld, director of adult programs, says that's due to a lack of interest.

In her six years at the center, Rosenfeld says she has put together committees to lead groups for those in their 20s and their 30s, but they "fizzled out" after a few meetings and events.

She credits that to a number of factors, including the Internet and the center's suburban location in Fairfax which is not conducive to drawing young adults who usually live in the Arlington/Ballston area. (Rosenfeld did point out, though, that some happy hours and other events were held in that neighborhood, but they weren't a big draw.)

Although both those JCCs sponsor groups for older singles, some worry that the disappearance of programs for younger singles at major Jewish community institutions bodes ill for the future.

Without institutional connections, "Why would couples want to be Jewish after they meet?" asks Harley Liebenson, executive director of the Jewish Sports and Social Network, which is responsible for the Gefilte Fish Gala and numerous other events for Jewish young professionals.

"There is no institutional effort for outreach toward singles, even though they are a large part of the population," contends Liebenson.

Pointing to the 2003 Greater Washington Jewish community survey, he noted that 38 percent of the 215,000 Jews of all ages in the D.C. area are single, with half of them older than 35.

Rabbi Avis Miller of Adas Israel, however, remains more optimistic about the institutional outreach to the singles community. Synagogues and community centers, she says, "are still serving that segment of the community. It's just taking different forms."

The singles Shabbat service she ran monthly for more than two decades died out in the past few years, but she is confident that Jews can meet each other in Jewish settings, pointing to the success of Greenberg and his Young Professionals programming.

Another example of a successful young professionals group is 2239 at Washington Hebrew Congregation in the District. Associate Rabbi Joui Hessel formed the group after arriving at the synagogue in 2001 and it now routinely draws more than 150 people to downtown happy hours, as well as sponsoring guest speakers, religious services and other events.

Hessel credits the group's success to a number of factors, including forming a diverse steering committee that makes it possible for new people to "immediately find someone like them."

And she adds that as someone who likes to think of herself as "cool and hip," she is "trying to program for someone like me."

The Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in the District also has been successful in drawing young adults with concerts, lectures and Shabbat services.

Some having success with young adult programming point out that they are avoiding the use of the word "singles" which has gained a negative stigma in recent years in favor of the term "young professionals."

At the Washington DCJCC, EntryPointDC GesherCity director Vicki Sitron says using the term "singles" implies that everyone attending is attending for the sole purpose of finding a mate, while the term young professionals provides "less pressure" while still providing plenty of opportunities to meet other single Jews because it is open to anyone in that age group, she says.

"It's less intimidating," says Greg Bland, who founded the Jewish Professionals Network and is also CEO of the young professionals group Things to Do DC. People feel they can go to an event deemed "young professionals" and just hang out and meet new people, instead of only meeting people of the opposite sex, he says.

While meeting people through one's computer may eliminate pressure or intimidation, online experiences can be frustrating "if you don't find somebody after a while," or if users misrepresent themselves in their profiles, says Cohen, 26. She recalls being "on the brink" of leaving JDate right before she met her fiance.

That kind of frustration is the reason Bland, a 12-year veteran of sponsoring and promoting events for singles and young professionals, sees a "reverse trend" developing away from the Internet.

He says he hears so many JDate "horror stories" of ending up on a date with someone who looks nothing like their picture or acts nothing like their profile that people seem to be increasingly interested in events in "traditional settings."

Meeting someone in person, he says, means you won't be surprised on a first date and have to spend a couple of hours eating dinner with someone who misrepresented himself or herself.

Arianna Cohen of Arlngton thinks JDate has become "kind of a crutch" for Jewish singles. The 26-year-old says too many people "rely on it" and thus feel "they don't have to seek out other events" to meet new people.

Kensington's Randy Goldstein, 29, has never been on JDate although many of his friends "swear by it."

To him, there are more than enough events throughout the area where he can meet new people, from specifically Jewish events like GesherCity Shabbat dinners to nonexclusive groups like his kickball league and the local Young Democrats organization (which, he notes, usually has plenty of Jews in attendance.)

Which is why many feel JDate may supplement, but never totally supplant, young adult programming in the Jewish community.

Even with the emergence of the Internet, says Hessel, "people still want human-to-human interaction."