Matchmaking Effort Takes Surprise Turn

The Jewish bachelor from Alaska who came to the Big Apple searching for a Jewish dream woman got what he wanted. There’s one hitch to getting hitched, though: She’s not moving.

So Jay Ramras, who spent four months in New York looking for a bride who would move to Fairbanks, is pondering the once-unthinkable: moving here.

Ramras is flying home Monday, smitten with a 28-year-old Jewish marketing executive. He says she’s smart, kind, pretty--and determined to stay in New York.

“I feel like someone who’s gone to a grocery store and come out with two bags full but not the item he went in for in the first place,” he says. “I know now that for the right woman I would turn my life inside out.”

The 33-year-old bachelor’s faith, and his intention to marry within it, are as strong as ever. But he now finds himself mulling the perfect town (Fairbanks) vs. the perfect woman (whose name he won’t divulge, at her request).

Ramras came to Manhattan in November at a relative’s suggestion. He hadn’t found a mate in Fairbanks, a town of 33,000, where single men outnumber single women 5 to 3, and even fewer are Jewish.

With 1.9 million Jews, New York City has nearly one-third of the nation’s Jewish population. Ramras hoped to find that one woman who would return with him to his Fairbanks condo and his growing chain of restaurants.

“I don’t know whether it’s humility, fatigue or true love, but my perceptions have changed,” he says.

Dating dozens of women a month, Ramras quickly became one of the city’s most famous bachelors, the subject of magazine articles, television spots and movie offers.

The tall, green-eyed Alaskan dined at the trendiest spots, played host at Jewish singles parties and spoke at synagogues. He squired dates to Broadway shows and hockey games, always showing up with flowers or gifts. And he made some great friends.

“He’s just so endearing,” says Aelisa Cashar, a single, Jewish television producer who met Ramras on a story and stayed in touch.

She says his friendly, unaffected style was popular--but Fairbanks wasn’t.

“It’s too far west and too cold,” she says. “At 30 degrees, Jay would be walking around in khakis and a blazer like it was springtime.”

Over and over again, women just couldn’t get used to the idea of all that uncharted wilderness outside Fairbanks.

Finally, Ramras--worried about his business back home and with friends there missing him--decided to pack it in.

Then fate intervened. Ready to move three weeks ago, Ramras went to a goodbye brunch--and met a woman. He found himself putting off the flight home.

So why leave now?

Ramras says he’s giving the relationship some breathing room. And he wants to get out of the spotlight and back to real life. “I’m not a playboy. I’m a worker bee,” he says.

Cashar thinks Ramras is leaving to test his feelings about New York. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come back,” she says.

But for Ramras, there’s one important condition: “I only want to come back if I’m invited.”