SimXa Company, Inc was conceived in 1996 in the Westwood apartment of Moshe and Esther Davidoff and was inspired by a guest speaker, Rabbi Shimon Grilus, who came to Los Angeles from Israel, having been invited here by the Bureau of Jewish Education. Our vision is to help Jewish Russian immigrants from the former Soviet Union, as well as their children, to come back to their Jewish roots. Finding our heritage and our rich Jewish tradition that we ourselves were robbed of, growing up within the rigid anti-Semite Soviet regime, is a beautiful voyage for us and our family, and we want to share it with our Jewish brethren.
Both, holding MBA degrees from Babson College of Wellesley, MA, Esther and Moshe had a vision to create and build up this organization, where every Russian Jew would feel welcome and comfortable. Throughout our history of the past 13 years, we have offered a variety of classes, lectures, teleconferences, satellite learning groups, and of course, what has become the staple of our program, the Annual SimXa Shabbaton.
We started out by holding classes in our home and in local synagogues and community centers, such as the Jewish Federation and The Jewish Community Center and later incorporated into our program the get-away weekends at various Southern California resorts, hotels, and conference centers. In year 2000 SimXa Company, Inc was incorporated and applied for a non-profit status with the IRS. At first we were granted a temporary 501©3 standing, and in 2005 upon a rigorous review of our support organization, donations, and events we had received a permanent non-profit status standing.
Over the years our organization has hosted hundreds of young Jewish singles and families with various educational and entertainment events by a multitude of guest lecturers, speakers, musicians, and performers of various Jewish denominations. We have had the honor of hosting many special visitors from New York, Chicago, Israel, and other places, as well as many guests from our local resourceful community. We have held concerts with bards and poets, Jewish Holiday outings such as the Tu B’Shvat banquet and the Chanukah Extravaganza. Countless Russian Jews of all ages and walks of life bonded and experienced true spiritual growth through these enriching encounters. Our annual (and some years bi-annual) Shabbaton has grown in attendance in the past 9 years from 63 to 230 participants. Our retreats, having gotten a great reputation nation-wide, have been attended not only by members of our local community, but also by people from Orange County, San Diego, Monterey, South Bay Area, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle, and even cities as far removed from us as Baltimore and New York.
Having taken our family on trips to Israel for the past three summers, the SimXa board members spun off more activity in bringing Russian Jews of Los Angeles closer to their roots. We have been facilitating the application process and acceptance of a few of our local graduates to study at various learning institutions in Eretz Yisrael. As our vision grows beyond Los Angeles, we envision promoting development of spiritual identity growth among our fellow Russian immigrants and their children well beyond the boundaries of what the current Western culture can offer. We are gearing up for bringing small groups of local Jewish Russian singles and young families on educational tours of Israel.