News & Impact

At a young age, Ilysa Goldblatt learned the importance of community. She has dedicated her life to helping others navigate life’s challenges and creating a thriving community inspired by Jewish values and traditions. That commitment motivates Ilysa’s service on JFCS’ Board of Directors. “Not everyone has a strong support system. JFCS helps to fill that essential role,” she says. Growing up in central New Jersey, Ilysa was part of a large, active Jewish community. “I attended Jewish camp, Hebrew school, visited Israel. Our Jewish identity was very important for our family,” says Ilysa. After graduating from Tulane University, Ilysa moved… Read More

“My parents taught my sisters and me the importance of building a strong Jewish community and helping those in need,” says Ron Zeff, who was elected to Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ Board of Directors last June. “They were devoted to the local Denver community and to Israel.” Ron grew up in the real estate business in Colorado, learning firsthand from his father, a respected developer and community leader. He moved to the Bay Area for college and, after earning his MBA, entered the local real estate field, where he quickly acquired a reputation for pioneering deals. Building on his… Read More

In 2019, Drs. Kathy Fields and Garry Rayant led the launch of the Center for Children and Youth (CCY), the brainchild of Dr. Anita Friedman, Executive Director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS). Together they developed a new and more comprehensive approach to addressing services for young people. “JFCS has changed so many lives through their exceptional services,” says Dr. Kathy Fields. “Through serious crises including fires and the pandemic, JFCS has responded with elegance and compassion for all the families involved.” But the problem confronting children and youth is overwhelming. It is a well-known and documented fact that… Read More

Soon after arriving in San Francisco from Ukraine, Kira, then 13, and her parents attended a large, joyous Passover Seder for families who had emigrated from the former Soviet Union. The families were receiving help from Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) to build new lives in the Bay Area. The holiday gathering was one of the many ways that JFCS created a strong, supportive community for the newcomers. That summer, Kira spent two weeks at Camp Tawonga near Yosemite, thanks to a campership scholarship from caring JFCS donors. The experience was pivotal for the adolescent. Despite the happiness of… Read More

Giving back to the community is a core family value for Vera Stein, a longtime JFCS volunteer and friend. Beginning with her father’s work as a volunteer with JFCS’ Utility Workshop, a pioneering job-creation program for refugees and immigrants, and continuing with Vera and her daughter, Deborah Hoffman—both active committee members and past members of the JFCS Board of Directors—three generations of this compassionate and community-minded family have helped to support JFCS’ mission. Vera and her family had direct experience with JFCS services when her widowed mother, Greta Livingson z’l, needed help at home. “The staff at JFCS’ Seniors At… Read More

Inspired by her grandparents’ experience as Holocaust survivors, Tania Albukerk, a longtime JFCS volunteer, and her husband, Larry, became donors to JFCS’ comprehensive, loving services for local Holocaust survivors. “We want to help survivors have the best possible years,” says Tania, who also helps to strengthen our community by serving on JFCS’ Program & Planning and Loans & Grants Committees. “Growing up, I felt immersed in the visceral, lived experience of those who had been through the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II,” says Tania. Since her three children and their peers do not have this experience, Tania… Read More