Our History
Sasson V'Simcha is the byproduct of a 30-plus year friendship between its founders, Rosie Einhorn and Sherry Zimmerman, who first got to know each other as newlyweds living a block apart in Elizabeth, New Jersey. When Sherry finished law school and Rosie completed her M.S.W., they settled on different shores of the North American continent to develop their careers and raise their families. They remained friends over the distance, and after moving to Israel with their respective families in 1990s, Sherry and Rosie decided to collaborate on a project that would have a positive impact on the growing numbers of single Jewish men and women who were having difficulty achieving their goals of marrying and enjoying happy and enduring marriages.
Their first effort was the book,
"Talking Tachlis A Singles' Strategy for Marriage", a self-help book on effective dating for marriage-minded daters that was especially geared to the needs of Orthodox Jewish men and women. The success of “Talking Tachlis” encouraged Sherry and Rosie to address the concerns of couples embarking on a new phase of their lives in their book, "In The Beginning-How To Survive Your Engagement And Build A Great Marriage". Their goal was to help Jewish couples turn the beginnings of a relationship into a wonderful, strong and deeply satisfying marriage.
Little did Sherry and Rosie imagine that their efforts to publicize their first books would lead to the development of a world-wide effort to address the needs of Jewish singles. They heard unmarried men and women compare their overall satisfaction with their lives to their frustration because the goal of marriage continued to elude them.
Scores of people shared their perspective on what it meant to be single, Jewish and dating. Others described how they felt detached from and ignored by Jewish communities, while parents despaired about how to help their dating-aged children, no matter what their ages. Sherry and Rosie also saw many Jewish leaders struggle to find solutions to a "singles problem" they weren’t sure how to address.
The results of the year 2000 National Jewish Population Survey reinforced Sherry and Rosie’s awareness that the Jewish communities is in danger of losing our most valuable resource: the future. The survey reported higher percentages of unmarried Jewish adults than ever before - record numbers of Jewish adults who were not marrying and building Jewish homes. Sherry and Rosie brainstormed with community leaders, rabbis and educators about how to reverse this disturbing trend in Jewish society.
These discussions prompted them to launch a widespread effort to help single Jewish men and women who want to marry. They combined their own innovative techniques with ideas others had shared with them. Today, Sasson V’Simcha – The Center for Jewish Marriage, Inc., offers an array of programs and services to enable Jewish singles, families, and to communities achieve the goal of increasing the number of successful, enduring Jewish marriages. Since its founding in 2000, Sasson V’Simcha’s programs and services have reached thousands of Jewish men and women in the U.S., Canada, Israel, and the U.K.
We continually see the positive results of our efforts – letters and calls of thanks that also announce engagements or marriages, or describe the successful efforts of a dating mentor, matchmaking group, or community-wide project. As Sasson V'Simcha widens the scope of our activities and is joined by more volunteers, we hope to help more Jewish men and women achieve and maintain happy and enduring Jewish marriages and homes.