NEW YORK -- If you make three marriages, the Talmud says that you're guaranteed a spot in heaven. But if that's true, then one local woman has a spot upstairs for herself and the population a small town!

WEB LINK www.Hineni.org

Rebbetzin Estherer Jungreis is too modest to say that the number of marriages she's made in her nearly 50 years of charitable matchmaking is probably in the low thousands.

Jungreis says that she makes a match almost once a week, and she tries to go to all of the weddings. She says it God's work, and she does it while teaching the Torah.

Each week, Jungreis, who is a Holocaust survivor and founder of the Hineni Jewish Outreach Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side, meets with 1,000 or so single men and woman at free classes she teaches. She also holds informal gatherings to help the attendees find their soul mates.

"She's very intuitive, she goes by her gut instincts," said Daniel Feinberg, an attendee of Jungreis' classes.

Jungreis says when she talks to people, she works to keep the dialogue deep, revealing whether a man or woman has a good heart -- the most important component to a happy marriage, she says.

"It's a wonderful way of getting people together, allowing them to meet on a higher spiritual plane," she said.

The rebbetzyn introduced Shannon and Andrew Penson two years ago. Now the couple is married with twin boys.

"It's nice to come home to someone you love and not be alone," Shannon Penson said. "It's very special. I think that everyone should find your mate. I think it's the greatest gift you can give someone."

But love often doesn't click on the first set-up. Jungreis says many singles nowadays are just too picky -- and unrealistic.

To them she offers this sobering advice: "Before you make up your mind how she should look, look in the mirror!" she said.