Why we opened this campaign
Thought there were no couples left whose story could resemble a Hollywood movie? Read Roni and Yosef’s story — it might just turn that idea upside down.
Roni and Yosef are olims from Russia, from St. Petersburg and Moscow. Roni went on Birthright in 2020, and that was the beginning of her Jewish journey. She started attending a Jewish community and independently studying Jewish tradition and the history of the Jewish people.
In early 2022, Yosef, who was still Roma at the time, began his own Jewish journey after a trip to Israel, independently exploring Jewish tradition and religion. They were only a few months away from meeting each other.
In the fall of 2022, Yosef, then still Roma, and Roni, then still Sonya, met on a Masa program in Jerusalem. They argued about almost everything, so much so that no one around them could have imagined they would ever end up together. But somehow, through all those arguments, one truth emerged: they were meant to be together.
Together, with the support of a young Jewish community in Jerusalem, they began growing closer to Jewish tradition and observing the mitzvot. In 2024, Roma underwent brit milah and took the Jewish name Yosef, while a few months earlier, Sonya had taken the Jewish name Roni at the Western Wall.
Since then, Yosef completed the Garin Tzabar program for lone soldiers and served for two years and eight months in a combat unit of the IDF Home Front Command, while Roni learned Hebrew, took the psychometric exam, and began studying economics and statistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Their families also followed their children to Israel and made aliyah. At first, Roni’s mother worked as a nanny. Once her Hebrew improved enough, she found a job as a manager for a long-term rental project. Roni’s stepfather found work with a tile installation company. However, in 2024, he was hit by a car and is still undergoing physical rehabilitation and the process of obtaining disability status.
Yosef’s parents made aliyah from Moscow in August 2025. His mother found a job at the Gesher Theatre while actively studying Hebrew, and his father continues to travel to Russia for work.
Today, Roni and Yosef work hard and support themselves entirely on their own. Yosef works as a cook at a well-known restaurant in central Jerusalem, while Roni combines her university studies with a job as a restaurant manager.
In their free time, they love traveling, hiking, and playing board games. Yosef is passionate about history and hopes to take a tour guide course in the future, while Roni is interested in geology and creative pursuits.
Although they have already moved to a new country and built an independent life for themselves, and Yosef has completed his service in the Israeli army, their biggest dream has yet to come true.
Roni and Yosef dream of having a real Jewish wedding.
Their families wholeheartedly support the path they have chosen — they even bought a Shabbat hot plate so the couple could come and spend Shabbat with them — but they are unable to help financially with the wedding. This means Roni and Yosef are facing the challenge of paying for and organizing the celebration entirely on their own, without outside support.
Let’s come together to help Roni and Yosef fulfill their dream and have the Jewish wedding they have been working toward for so long.
Every donation brings that day a little closer — and becomes part of their story.
