Jewish Community News

News: September 2008

Tova Yaron opens spa at the San Jose Fairmont Hotel

Over the summer, Tova Yaron opened a multi-level spa in the lobby of the San Jose Fairmont Hotel, her second location. With  two successful salons in the Silicon Valley, the Israeli native says she’s come along way from when she arrived in the U.S.
     “I don’t know how it happened,” said Yaron. “If you’re very determined and hard working you can make it. ”
    Yaron grew up in Holon, Israel, near Tel Aviv. In 1988, she moved to the United States with very little money,  her  husband and three children: Michal, 20, Meirav, 17, and David,15. Her marriage ended soon after and Yaron struggled to raise her children and start a business of her own.
     Yaron found her first line of support from the  Jewish community. Local Jewish activist Doris Davis, whom she had met in Israel, helped identify a small location off Pollard Road for Yaron to rent. Davis frequented Yaron’s salon, and helped her organize a presentation for  professional Jewish women. “That was very helpful,” Yaron recalls.
    Yaron remembers the difficulty of those early days. In addition to struggling financially, her son David returned to Israel to serve in the army during the Intifada. “It was a nightmare every night,” Yaron recalls. “To be a mother and have your son in the army. It was tough for me.”
     Yaron continued to work as an aesthetician in a variety of rented spaces until 2001, when she  finally owned a home against which she could borrow to fund her business. While at first thinking she would need to bring in investors, Yaron took a risk and provided all her own funding.
     “Not everybody will give a woman, an aesthetician with no husband a chance,” said Yaron. “It’s a big risk, whether someone will finish. But I had a fantastic experience at Westgate Mall. The woman said, ‘if anyone can do it, you can do it.’ I was flattered that people trusted me.”
     Despite the inopportune timing of opening weeks after the September 11 attacks in 2001, Yaron’s Saratoga location excelled. “Now I open in a big recession and we’re not doing bad, but I’m hoping for better,” said Yaron
      Yaron first heard of the Fairmont’s search for an on-site spa when she met Fairmont Public Relations Manager Lina Broydo at a VIP event for the Ballet San Jose. “I was introduced to Tova and we started speaking in Hebrew and I said, ‘you know we’re in the process of looking for a spa,” said Broydo. “Her eyes became this big. I went to visit her at her Saratoga location, and the rest is, as they say, history.”
     Yaron’s Fairmont location not only offers top-end services and products, but must accommodate large groups including wedding parties and sports teams. With 13 treatment rooms, (including  two double massage rooms and a pedicure room with three treatment chairs), the spa can service 18 people simultaneously, not including the hair salon. A hot tub and separate male and female saunas and steam rooms offer additional facilities during parties and group affairs. “Next week we have 20 women coming in at once,” said Yaron, pointing out a separate area where the hotel brings in catered food.
     Nearly 20 years after moving to the United States, Yaron can only be considered a success story. Her son David and daughter Mirav help her with the business. Daughter Michal lives in San Mateo where she is raising three children of her own, ages 11, 8 and 6. Yaron says she feel blessed to live so close to her children and grandchildren.
      A stalwart and unabashed supporter of
Israel, Yaron says she keeps a very Jewish, Israeli home, celebrates all of the holidays and attends services for the High Holy Days.
      Asked about the secret of her success she answered not much differently than many successful entrepreneurs. “You have to take risk in life,” she says, palms upward,  “or you’re never going to make it.”