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Mark Kaplan, Golda Mason, and Bobbie Landau are breaking old habits. Now single, they have all in the past dated, become involved with or married non-Jews. Despite success in some of these past relationships, however, they have decided to date and hopefully make their next partner a Jewish one.

Meeting other Jewish singles is not so difficult, they have found. They can participate in programs at synagogues, go to Jewish singles groups' events, explore Jewish online sites, and respond to personal ads. Sometimes they're successful; other times loneliness wins out and they may break their resolution. But whether or not they meet their Prince (or Princess) Charming, they are making a change in their lives — becoming part of a Jewish community.

Given the proliferation of Jewish singles groups and the number of people flocking to them, finding a Jewish partner might even be a trend.

Although Kaplan, Mason and Landau have come to the same conclusion, they got there in different ways.

Kaplan was raised in Highland Park, Ill., outside Chicago. Boasting a large Jewish population, it's the kind of city where you don't have to think much about being Jewish because most everybody is. He did not come from a religious background and as an undergraduate at Harvard, didn't care about the religion of the women he dated. But when Kaplan moved to San Francisco four years ago, he made dating Jewish women a priority.

This decision was part of a bigger issue.

"It was sort of my overall search for what Judaism meant to me," says Kaplan. He thought about celebrating Jewish holidays and someday having children who would question him about Judaism.

And there was more.

"It's hard to put your finger on it," he says, mentioning the emphasis Jews put on education and family. "There's a certain mental acuity that's prided in Jewish families, a sense of humor. I'd taken that for granted and realized that's not present in everybody."

Through Simcha, the singles group at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, Kaplan found both the community he was looking for and the woman he will marry on Sunday.

He met Debbie Abrams, a former Simcha president, two years ago during an event at which members were assembling Chanukah baskets to deliver to the elderly and disabled.

Sherith Israel Rabbi Stan Zamek will officiate at the couple's nuptials in Phoenix, Ariz.

Golda Mason, who lives in Alameda and is also a recent transplant to the Bay Area, decided to go a different route after her marriage to a non-Jew ended in divorce. Mason decided to cultivate relationships primarily with Jewish men and women, believing some of her dissatisfaction in the marriage had to do with her husband not being Jewish.

Mason, then living in Kansas City, was able to get a job transfer to the Bay Area where her grown children live.

Through East Bay Jewish Singles and the Jewish Internet, Mason has met and dated several Jewish men. Although nothing romantic has panned out yet, she's gotten a bonus: Jewish women friends.

"The women are wonderful," says Mason of the women she's met through her various singles activities. "I have made such wonderful dear friends in a short time. I'm busy. I have people to go with and places to go."

Bobbie Landau was married to a non-Jew for more than 20 years. Since her divorce 10 years ago, she has built a Jewish framework for her life, and dating Jewish men just comes with the territory. Many of her leisure-time activities are Jewishly oriented: Israeli dancing, hiking with Jewish singles, Contra Costa Jewish singles events, Torah study, Yiddish classes and tutoring a Russian emigre.

Landau even started a group seven years ago: Bay Area Jewish Vegetarians.

"Often, one-third of the people are not vegetarians but come for a healthy lifestyle and to be with other Jews," says Landau, who now lives in San Ramon.

Raised in Palo Alto in a Conservative family, she has reclaimed a spirituality and love of Jewish ritual that lay dormant during her marriage.

"After being married to a non-Jew, it was really nice sharing Shabbat with a Jewish man," she says. "I also really like the spirituality of lighting Shabbat candles and doing the blessings over the bread and wine when a man puts on his yarmulke. I feel part of a long tradition that has survived in spite of so many difficulties throughout every century Jews have existed."