The Simcha House: A Celebration Years in the Making

Los Angeles has no shortage of venues where a couple can exchange vows under a chuppah or a family can celebrate a milestone. But for decades, many Orthodox families here faced a dilemma: host the kind of wedding or bar mitzvah their faith and traditions call for or keep the event financially within reach. In a city where the average catered wedding can run well into six figures, the middle ground was elusive.

That gap has now been narrowed thanks to the Simcha House, a new venue that offers dignified, all-inclusive celebrations at a fraction of prevailing costs. The initiative, led by a team based at Young Israel of Los Angeles and championed by its president, Mendel Levin, has already hosted its first events.

Levin had been speaking for years about the absence of an affordable local option for weddings. Four of his own children’s weddings had been held on the East Coast, where families can find elegant yet reasonably priced packages—so cost-effective, in fact, that it was often cheaper for Los Angeles families to fly cross-country than to host a simcha in their own city. “With the support and encouragement of my family, and along with other members of our shul, we decided we were going to make it happen,” Levin recalled. “We were confident that if we could raise the funds to renovate our building, we’d be able to offer elegant, memorable wedding packages at prices comparable to the East Coast, while saving families the expense and stress of traveling.”

The first attempt to fund the idea—a modest online campaign—fell short of its target. But the very next day, Levin received a message from Joel Bess, one of the campaign’s team leaders. A donor had asked to learn more. His name was Sol Goldner. Within days Levin found himself at Goldner’s shul after morning prayers, setting up a meeting that would change the trajectory of the project.

“I’ve known Mendel for a very long time,” Goldner later said. “When he reached out about this project, it felt like fate.”

But behind the new nameplate and polished ballroom lies a deeper story, one that stretches back nearly eight decades, to a young couple who arrived in Los Angeles from war-torn Europe with little more than their faith, grit, and a determination to rebuild Jewish life from the ground up.

That couple, Jacob and Rose Kasirer, survived the Holocaust—he by hiding in the forests of Romania, she by enduring Auschwitz. They married after the war, immigrated from Austria to Los Angeles in 1954, and quickly became fixtures in a fledgling Orthodox community that was then more idea than infrastructure. The Kasirers helped found Toras Emes, the city’s first Orthodox day school, with Jacob collecting a dollar or two each week from parents to pay the rebbi. They went on to start Bais Yaakov School for Girls in 1967, after discovering there was no Jewish high school in the city for their daughter. Jacob served as president for nearly four decades, ensuring the school’s financial footing and helping it grow into one of the top Jewish high schools in the country.

As the couple prospered, purchasing and operating a small nursing home in Rosemead in the 1950s, they plowed resources back into the community. Rose became synonymous with Bikur Cholim, organizing volunteers to deliver meals to families dealing with hospitalization or home care needs. Jacob lent his business acumen and personal credibility to countless causes, from local schools to Hasidic institutions in New York and Israel.

The Kasirers’ work was as personal as it was public. Friends recall Jacob quietly offering to cover wedding expenses for families in need, often before they even asked. Rose’s kitchen was as much a communal asset as it was a family space, producing food for patients and neighbors alongside her own children’s meals. Over the years, their generosity became a family tradition, one embraced and expanded by their daughter Gabriella and her husband, Sol Goldner.

So when Levin approached Sol in late 2024 with an idea to create a venue for affordable simchas and other lifecycle events, the proposal landed on ground long prepared. “It was karma,” Goldner said in an interview. In 2005, during his final moments, Jacob—surrounded by family—motioned for Rabbi Yoel Burstyn of Bais Yaakov to come closer. With great effort, he whispered that if the building next to the school ever became available, it should be turned into a hall where weddings could be made affordable for the community. It was the thought on his mind as he prepared to leave this world, a wish that went unfulfilled in his lifetime. “We’ve been looking for the opportunity to make it happen ever since,” Goldner said.

The Simcha House is that opportunity realized. Though housed at Young Israel of Los Angeles, it is neither a synagogue-branded hall nor a private family enterprise. Levin is careful to frame it as a community project with broad support, the Goldners’ founding gift serving as the catalyst. “One wouldn’t have happened without the other,” Levin said. “It has been a dream for a long time, but it might have stayed a dream without their funding.”

The hall’s first events have already served their dual purpose: to demonstrate that the concept works, and to dispel skepticism that such pricing, starting at $15,000 for a full kosher wedding including venue, catering, chuppah, music, photography, florals, and seating for 200+ guests, must come with hidden compromises. “There are definitely skeptics, because it sounds too good to be true,” Levin acknowledged. “That’s why the first event was so important. People saw with their own eyes that we delivered exactly what we promised.”

The evening was marked by opening words from Rabbi Reuven Wolf, director of Maayon Yisroel and a respected teacher in Los Angeles. Reflecting on his role, he said, “It was very special to be at the inaugural Simcha. I even mentioned in my remarks at the chuppah that this was not just a wedding, but the very first of many to come in this place. That gave it an added sense of meaning.”

The setting itself reflects a balance between economy and elegance. The Goldners and other early donors helped finance a transformation of the space, retaining the building’s congregational role while outfitting it for simchas that meet contemporary expectations. Gourmet catering from the new in-house custom-built kitchen replaces the budget buffets that some might associate with low-cost halls. Décor, lighting, and table settings are chosen to convey warmth and refinement.

Rabbi Wolf noted that the meal itself exceeded expectations, particularly given the circumstances. “I was very impressed. The food was ample, delicious, and beautifully presented—especially remarkable for a first event.”

Levin emphasizes that the Simcha House is an extension of the synagogue’s broader revitalization efforts. Over the past several years, Young Israel of Los Angeles has expanded its programming, brought in a younger rabbinical couple to complement its longtime leadership, and hosted large community events such as community Friday night dinners and Chanukah gatherings. “The Simcha House is an outgrowth of that push,” he said. “We saw a desperate need in the community, and we knew we could meet it.”

From the Goldners’ perspective, the project is both a continuation and an evolution of the Kasirer legacy. It offers a way to help the very graduates of Bais Yaakov Jacob once nurtured, ensuring they can marry in their own city without relocating to more affordable locales. It also broadens the circle, making high-quality celebrations accessible to any family that prefers to steward resources toward other priorities.

The economic argument is straightforward. By pooling purchasing power, standardizing certain services, and leveraging volunteer and donor support, the Simcha House can deliver what private negotiations with vendors rarely achieve: predictable, transparent pricing without the stress of hidden fees or runaway budgets. Levin is quick to note that affordability does not mean uniformity. Each event can be customized within the framework, allowing for personal touches while maintaining the cost controls that make the model viable.

Already, word is spreading. The hall’s calendar includes a mix of weddings and bar mitzvahs, with interest extending beyond Los Angeles. Levin predicts that as the concept proves itself, it may even draw East Coast families for whom the West Coast offers both a personal connection and a distinctive setting.

The initiative’s funding model reflects its communal ethos. While the Goldner Family Foundation’s initial contribution underwrote much of the startup cost, the Simcha House operates with the expectation of ongoing donor support. Its interactive “donor wall,” both in-venue and online, will recognize gifts of all sizes and invite new participation.

The team is also developing a long-term fundraising strategy, with a major campaign planned once the venue’s reputation and body of work have grown. Levin favors building a “war chest” to ensure the hall’s sustainability and capacity to improve infrastructure, from expanded seating to upgraded parking. Just as important, the reserve would allow the Simcha House to quietly subsidize celebrations for families who cannot afford even its reduced rates. “We can’t have people thinking it’s all covered and that we don’t need anyone else’s money,” Levin said. “This has to be here in five years, in ten years, and beyond.”

The Goldners share that view, continuing to support a range of Jewish organizations across Los Angeles, from Bikur Cholim to Hatzalah, while maintaining deep ties to Bais Yaakov. Gabriella has chaired its annual dinners for nearly four decades, with her sister Hindy Mayer also active in school affairs. “We were taught early on that it’s important to give back to the community that has been so kind to us,” Goldner said.

For now, the proof of concept is in the smiles captured at each event and the quiet relief of families able to celebrate without financial strain. The first wedding’s guests left with full stomachs, warm memories, and, for some, a sense of surprise that “affordable” could also be beautiful. The next test will come with the variety of upcoming bookings—a bar mitzvah here, a wedding there, each with its own requirements and guest list. Levin is confident the service level will remain constant. “Regardless of who the event is for, the quality of the food, the presentation, the ambience—it’s always going to be amazing,” he said.

The bride of that first wedding summed it up simply: “I didn’t have to worry about the details—finding a musician, negotiating with vendors, or juggling contracts. On the day itself, I could just be present. It was affordable, and it made the whole experience so much less stressful.”

The story of the Simcha House, like that of the Kasirer and Goldner families, is ultimately about building structures—literal and figurative—that make Jewish life more possible, more joyful, and more sustainable. From a one-room day school funded by pocket-change collections to a multi-story high school and now a full-service celebration venue, each chapter reflects the same principles: see the need, rally the resources, and make it happen.

As the Simcha House’s story unfolds, the names associated with it will stand as a quiet testament to a community that invests in each other’s joy. Some will be recognized widely, others known only to a few, yet each will carry the same weight of generosity and shared purpose. Together, they will form a record of shared values, just as Jacob and Rose Kasirer’s early contributions became part of the permanent fabric of Jewish Los Angeles.

For couples walking down the aisle here, celebrating a bris, or families marking a son’s bar mitzvah, those names will be a reminder that they are not alone, that their simcha rests on the shoulders of those who came before, and that their own turn to give back will come.

Donation through Zelle: simchafund@yila.org

Contact via email: info@yila.org

Visit to learn more: https://www.thesimchahouse.org/