Goodbye, computer dating.Hello, matchmakers!

If Yente, the matchmaker from "Fiddler on the Roof," were with us today, she would probably be a multimillionaire. Finding a meaningful relationship is so important to American singles that this age-old tradition is now a hip new career. But today's matchmakers are more likely to look as if they walked off a runway than stepped out of a shtetl.

For centuries, arranged marriages were the norm in many parts of the world, and engaged couples had little say about whom - and when - they would marry.

But for people who are tired of looking for love on their own, what's old is definitely new. Those opting for the "Fiddler" approach range from businessmen to Muslims, retirees to gay men.

"We're getting hundreds of singles, I mean hundreds of singles, saying, 'I want to find a matchmaker,' " says Lisa Clampitt, a matchmaker and the executive director of the Matchmaking Institute in New York, a training program for wannabes and a resource for singles. "I have a pile [of requests] in front of me like you wouldn't believe."

Driving some of the interest is a desire to explore options beyond personal ads, speed dating, and the Internet. Despite the popularity of online dating sites, some find the process too time-consuming. Some people are also looking for options that offer more privacy and security.

"Anybody can say what they want to say online," says Cindy Cleckner, a schoolteacher in her mid-40s. "How do I know the person's [really] divorced? How do I know they're not a stalker? How do you know they've not had a criminal background?" Such concerns led her to use a matchmaker near her home in Camp Hill, Pa., to find the man she's currently dating.

Ms. Clampitt's school has trained many modern matchmakers, including a number of men, since its debut in 2003. Brandon Dean is a 20-something trying to get his business off the ground in Fort Smith, Ark. (He's still trying to convince people in the city of nearly 100,000 that it's not an "escort" service.)

And there's Samantha Daniels, the inspiration for the short-lived 2003 TV show "Miss Match." She's a former divorce attorney (a profession that inspires many to try their hand at matchmaking), and is a single, 30- something who divides her time between Los Angeles and New York.

Despite her urbane credentials, when it comes to matching, she does it the old-fashioned way. "When I take on a new client, I actually sit and thumb through all the people [in my database], one by one thinking to myself, 'Who would go well with whom?' I don't have one of those fancy computer programs where I plug in pieces of information ... and they generate me a list."

In New York, 20-somethings Fatima Fasihuddin and her husband, Saleem Qureshi, moonlight as matchmakers for Muslim singles through their business called Zariya. They work directly with the singles - unlike older matchmakers in the Muslim community, who are often hired by a woman's parents, for example. The couple has set up people on both coasts.

"We spend a lot of time getting to know our clients, we're pretty much like their friends," says Ms. Fasihuddin, a production assistant at ABC News. "We just want to see people happy. It's so difficult nowadays to meet [single] people, whether it be the Muslim community or the Christian community or the Jewish community."

Fasihuddin and her husband charge only a small amount for their services - $50 per introduction, plus a $50 one-time registration fee - but typical matchmaking fees range from a few hundred dollars to $10,000 and up. Matchmakers typically offer clients a certain number of introductions or work with them for a specified time. They may also offer other services, such as dating and appearance coaching. But they don't guarantee a match, and they rarely, if ever, offer a refund.

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