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Should a 41-year-old married person be the president of an organization for singles in their 20s and 30s?

Well, the first thing Larry Kluger would tell you is that the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation's Young Adult Division isn't just for unwed people on the prowl for a mate.

"YAD is not a singles organization," stated Kluger, who is halfway into his one-year term as YAD's president. "We've had quite a few couples become involved since we made that change in direction about three years ago."

As the first married president in YAD's 33-year local history, Kluger, 41, is leading a big push to get more married couples involved. But the decision to go that route actually began under Dan Lavin's leadership in the mid-1990s.

The push is paying off. Of the 3,600 people on YAD's mailing list, said Kluger, about 400 of them wear wedding bands.

"That's 200 couples, whereas three years ago it was zero," he said. "It's been growing quite a bit each year. Actually, it's not just growing. It's accelerating."

In the Bay Area, YAD has a reputation as a group that facilitates shiduchs among Jewish singles between the ages of 21 and 39. About a dozen couples per year end up under the chuppah after meeting at a YAD event, Kluger said.

Some of them will have met at a "Blue Monday," a monthly YAD event that many people perceive as a pick-up night at a local bar. Some of them will have met at another YAD-sponsored event such as a hike or a lecture or a Latke Ball, which drew a record 1,500 people in December.

Heck, even Kluger met his wife, Paige, at a YAD weekend at Camp Tawonga in the summer of 1997. Less than a year later, they quit their lucrative jobs and went to study together in Israel. In August 1998, they married.

Still, don't tell Kluger that YAD is for singles only.

"In most cities around the United States, YAD is known as being a group for young people in their 20s and 30s," he said. "The people in the Bay Area who think of it only as a singles organization are people who have lived here for a long time and that's their impression. But their impression is out of date by about three years."

So what do married couples do in YAD?

An "ever-growing group of couples" opens up its homes to share Shabbat with other YAD married couples in a program called "First Fridays."

They attend social events, such as a recent Super Bowl party at a member's home in Sonoma. They participate in social-action programs. They go to lectures and discussion groups. This summer, about 15 to 20 couples are expected to go on YAD's first-ever couples mission to Israel. They also get involved on the planning side of YAD, maybe even joining the 27-member board of directors, or going to an annual convention in Washington, D.C.

"It's all about getting connected," Kluger said. "It's about building a community."

It's also about raising money. Last year, the Young Adult Divisions in Sonoma, San Francisco, Marin and Peninsula regions raised more than $500,000 for the federation, about 2-1/2 percent of the $21 million garnered by the S.F.-based JCF's 1999 campaign.

This year, YAD is being penciled in to raise $613,000, a hefty 16 percent increase over last year. No other division within JCF is being asked to increase its fund-raising by more than 4 percent.

"You could say there's pressure, but it's also very natural" that a big increase be expected from YAD, said Kluger. "It's all about education. If I'm a male working in Silicon Valley, I start to realize that I don't want to just spend my time buying cars and cigars. People learn about the campaign and it becomes something that they want to do."

Spoken like a true fund-raiser — which is what Kluger used to do as the chair of YAD's annual campaign.

He attended his first YAD event six years ago; it was a newcomers' reception. He then went on to become chair of the newcomers' committee, and then the annual campaign. His wife currently serves on the newcomers' committee, which helps welcome Jews who are new to the community into YAD.

A former marketing manager for a high-tech firm in Mountain View, Kluger was chosen for the role of YAD president, taking over from Wendy Bear, while he was in Israel. He and his wife spent 1-1/2 years there studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

"I was in contact with [the selection committee] by phone and by letter," said Kluger, who returned to California in August but still hasn't settled on a permanent job. He and his wife live in San Francisco's Inner Sunset District.

Age-wise, Kluger is at the upper end of the YAD scale and plans to turn his attention toward other federation endeavors once his term concludes at the end of July. Over the weekend, he was active in Super Sunday, serving as a technical consultant and also heading the cadre of YAD volunteers.

Kluger said he has enjoyed his six years in the YAD fold and thinks it's better than other social groups for young Jewish adults in the Bay Area.

"What makes YAD different as compared to other social groups is community," he said. "You're going to an event to have a good time, but the second part is not always there for other organizations — and that is you're building the community."