- Press Releases
Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) is pleased to announce that its Board of Trustees member Joyce Newstat and her spouse, community and business leader Susan Lowenberg, recently established the Seymour Newstat Endowment Fund at JFCS to benefit Holocaust survivors who participate in the agency’s social and educational program called Café by the Bay. Specifically, the fund will support Café by the Bay’s annual Passover seder, which attracts many Holocaust survivors throughout the Bay Area. Remaining distributions from the fund will be used to educate young people about the Holocaust and to advance moral courage, tolerance, and social justice.
The fund is named in memory of Joyce Newstat’s father, a Holocaust survivor who attended Café by the Bay programs during the last years of his life. “My father was a quiet man, but he loved presiding over the Passover seder,” said Ms. Newstat, “so it’s fitting that we remember him in this manner. A whole new world opened up for him at JFCS’ Café by the Bay, where he made friends with other survivors.”
In addition to serving on JFCS’ Board of Directors, Ms. Newstat is chair of the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Council of Children of Survivors. Susan Lowenberg, daughter of the late William Lowenberg, a leader in the advancement of Holocaust education in this country, also sits on the Council of Children of Holocaust Survivors. Ms. Lowenberg also serves on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council.
“Joyce and Susan set the example. They are leaders in both supporting care for aged Holocaust survivors and in ensuring that the important lessons that survivors have imparted to us are learned by future generations,” said JFCS Executive Director Dr. Anita Friedman. “We are all inspired by the special sensitivity they bring to the sacred task of Holocaust remembrance and education.”