Eugene and Elinor Friend set an incredible example of philanthropy for their children. Through their involvement with various organizations in the community, they showed their deep connection to their home and their heritage. Their story spans more than a century. As an Eastern European Jewish immigrant in New York City around the end of the19th century, Gene’s father was drawn to the western frontier, a place without barriers or discrimination. Elly moved to California from El Paso, Texas and met Gene while attending UC Berkeley. They married in 1940 and started a family. Though the two shared a passion for… Read More

Daryl Messinger’s collaboration with Jewish Family and Children’s Services started more than 20 years ago. Shortly after she and Jim Heeger joined Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos in the early 1990s, Daryl quickly heeded the call to service. At that time, Beth Am had partnered with JFCS to help resettle and acculturate emigres from the former Soviet Union and Daryl chaired the congregation’s émigré committee. In 1998, Paul Resnick recruited Daryl onto JFCS’ board of directors and by 1999 she was board treasurer, then vice president from 2002 through 2005. Both Daryl and Jim found inspiration to serve their… Read More

Anita and Ronald z’l Wornick sat for this interview in 2014. May his memory be for a blessing. Over many years, Ronald and Anita Wornick have touched the worlds of art, medical research, education, and Jewish philanthropy through gifts that have made a difference in the lives of many. But few of their gifts have meant as much to them personally as the Harry & Florence Wornick Endowment Fund for Youth Loans, which they established at JFCS as a tribute to Ron’s parents. The fund, which supports the education of promising students, recently received a boost with a significant… Read More

The Seymour Newstat Endowment Fund will make distributions each year to support Passover seders for the Café by the Bay program. The fund will exist in perpetuity and will be used for Holocaust education, after there is no longer a need for Café by the Bay programs. It was the joy that a particular JFCS program brought to her father’s life that prompted Joyce Newstat, along with her spouse, Susan Lowenberg, to establish a named endowment fund in his loving memory. Seymour Newstat did not talk much about his life during World War II—which included time in a work camp,… Read More

Philanthropist Bill Lowenberg, who survived Auschwitz, spent much of his life educating children, grandchildren, and countless others about the lessons of the Holocaust. Now, two years after his death, his legacy lives on at the newly named William J. Lowenberg Speakers Bureau of the JFCS Holocaust Center. A significant gift from the philanthropic fund of his daughter, Susan Lowenberg, and her spouse, Joyce Newstat, ensures that young people throughout the Bay Area will hear survivors’ stories of moral courage for years to come. “The two Holocaust-related institutions that my father felt closest to were the JFCS Holocaust Center, locally,… Read More

The Mitzi and Adolf Wilner Memorial Fund was established by Susan Wilner Golden in loving memory of her parents. Adolf and Mitzi were married in Lvov, Poland, on November 28, 1944, having survived the last few years of the war together. Adolf had immigrated to Palestine in 1934, and returned to Poland in the summer of 1939 to attend a family wedding. With the outbreak of the war, he was caught in Poland, unable to return to Tel Aviv. During the war, Adolf was hidden in the basement of a home where Mitzi worked serving meals to German soldiers who… Read More