Chatting with Simi Polonsky Hoffman

Rivki: We beautify, simplify, amplify our homes, and we do it with love. Our role as Jewish women is not to plow through, autopilot and robotic, but to find meaning in the elements that our days are built upon. It’s intriguing when something as functional as a couch, armoire, or desk transcends its materiality and becomes infused with sentimentality. When you train yourself to see life’s moments as more than just moments, you can find nostalgia and emotion within the fabric of a couch.

When chatting with Simi, an accomplished designer and entrepreneur, small talk is a backdrop because richness of dialogue is standard when talking with a thinker.

Simi: My late husband, Shua, had a great-grandfather who lost his wife and remarried a wonderful woman, Eva. Eva was a Holocaust survivor, and Shua would spend time with her once a week, learning from her life experiences and wisdom. After she passed away, Shua chose to take this couch as an heirloom. Not only is the couch a treasure, but we loved her so much that our second daughter is named Tsofia Chava Eva — Eva for Shua’s great-grandmother.

Sentimentality when it comes to functional things doesn’t have to do with how long, say, a piece of furniture has been in existence. It’s about being reminded of who previously owned it, or who I bought it with, or what it was bought for. If it was gifted to me by someone, I’m reminded of how it might have been sentimental to them, or if we had a special relationship to the person who gave it to us. Since it will always remind us of that person who previously owned it, it will always have value.