News & Impact

For Michael Rolnick and Linda Himelstein, community service is an essential family value. As they were raising their children, Jillian and Ben, in Hillsborough, Michael and Linda made it a priority to model the importance of giving back. “We wanted to nurture in our children a lifelong habit of giving back—not just money, but also time,” says Linda, an award-winning author and journalist. “This should be a vital part of life.” They began volunteering as a family at the JFCS Peninsula Food Bank. When Jillian and Ben were in high school, they participated in the YouthFirst service-learning and leadership development… Read More

JFCS Board member Deb Stadtner is devoted to philanthropic work in the Jewish community. After a successful 20-year career in market research, she now focuses considerable time on building a thriving and meaningful community in Marin and beyond. When her oldest of 4 children started preschool at the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center (OMJCC), Deb began volunteering at the school. This experience ignited a passion for serving others. In the years since, she has become a beloved leader in the Jewish community—volunteering and/or serving on the boards of numerous organizations including the OMJCC (including as President), Brandeis Marin, Jewish Community… Read More

Alex Ingersoll and Martin Tannenbaum are wonderful friends of JFCS who exemplify what it means to be dedicated supporters. Most recently, they chose to invest in future generations by making a generous three-year financial commitment to JFCS’ Center for Children and Youth. Alex and Martin were each inspired to become involved with JFCS because of the agency’s breadth of programming and effective and creative responses to community needs. JFCS also provides Alex, a convert to Judaism, and Martin, a Jew from Utah, with the opportunity to live their Jewish values of tzedakah and chesed, which also inform their philanthropic giving.… Read More

A leading pioneer in the software industry, Eugene Fooksman (founding developer at WhatsApp) is no stranger to paving the way to change. Looking to use his innovative vision and bold leadership to create positive social change, Eugene founded the Fooksman Family Foundation in 2018 to support the state of Israel and the continuity of the Jewish community. Originally from Russia, Eugene and his family were resettled by JFCS when they immigrated to the US over 20 years ago. Eugene’s deep connection to JFCS and commitment to strengthening the Jewish community came full circle this year, when the Fooksman Family Foundation… Read More

For Lydia Shorenstein, helping those in need is a way to honor the lessons of the past. Though she originally came to JFCS because of our Holocaust education programs, she is now helping lead the agency’s efforts to assist those in crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic. Lydia’s father, Simon Preisler, was an Auschwitz survivor who resettled with his wife Etelka in Germany after the war. Lydia, who was born and raised in Frankfurt, learned the importance of giving back from her father. Undeterred by the atrocities in his past, Simon became a well-known philanthropist and a leader of the… Read More

Carole Meyers and her family started volunteering with JFCS in 1993, when they “adopted” a Jewish family that had just emigrated from the Soviet Union. The Meyers guided the newcomers in many practical and emotional ways (not an easy task given the language barriers) and built a deep friendship with them. This experience, coupled with Carole’s love of teaching, inspired her to volunteer to teach a JFCS English Second Language class. Twelve years later, the small group of Russian-speaking Jewish emigre women continues to meet weekly, and Carole admits that learning English is only a small part of the class;… Read More