Cheating Gets Easier as Adultery Website Hits Israel

Image by Ashley Madison

By Anne Cohen May 20, 2014

Want to cheat on your spouse? There’s an app for that.

The Ashley Madison adultery website, which has made its name as a place to find people to have affairs with, is launching a Hebrew site in Israel. According to Haaretz, 35,000 Israelis have already registered, because of course.

The site, owned by Noel Biderman — a Jewish man who is married with two children — operates with the mantra: “Life is short, have an affair,” and reportedly has more than 20 million members worldwide, including 12 million men and 7 million women.

The company self-reports a 33% jump in membership since 2012 and an income of $120 -140 million annually.

Bad for marriage? Biderman doesn’t think so.

“Before the launch of Ashley Madison in Israel, people had affairs, and when I leave, they’ll have affairs. So why not give them a social network where they can be together,” Biderman said.

Ashley Madison operates in 17 languages across 37 countries. How do you say, “How you doin’?” in Hebrew?

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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