News & Impact

The Mercury News By Jacqueline Lee It was her mother’s intuition that spared Denise Elbert from the gas chambers during the Jewish Holocaust in World War II. Elbert was 9 months old in 1942 when she boarded a train headed for Sobibor with her mom and dad. Young Jewish Slovakian families, like the Elberts, had been told they were needed to help build a major German city, and locals lined the platform to see them off. When Elbert’s mother spotted a good childhood friend, she decided to ask the friend to care for her daughter until the couple got settled… Read More

The Press Democrat By Christi Warren Several generations have come and gone since May 1945 when the last prisoners were liberated from the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. The Holocaust today feels far away, especially for youth increasingly separated from not only the harsh realities of a world at war, but the scope of Germany’s campaign of genocide. For years, Jewish groups have worked to bring Holocaust survivors into classrooms to discuss their time in the camps, to tell their stories. But that population is quickly dwindling — fewer than 100,000 survivors remain — which is what sparked… Read More

“JFCS is our community’s safety net,” Teresa says, and here’s how: Struggling with a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, Teresa felt lost and overwhelmed when she picked up the phone and made her first call to JFCS. An attorney in her early 60s who lost her job during recent economic hard times, she was suddenly unable to care for herself and was alone in the face of a medical crisis without family or close friends to help. Teresa says, “After getting home from surgery I could barely leave my bed, let alone care for myself or my home. Jewish Family and… Read More

Do the Good Thing—Please Donate to the JFCS Annual Campaign Ida has survived many hardships in life. She survived the Nazi camps as a girl in Poland and breast cancer as a middle-aged woman living in the Bay Area. But the one thing she says she can’t survive is being separated from Saul, her husband of 58 years. Saul’s been frail since his stroke. Ida can’t take care of him on her own, and the couple does not have children. Their fixed income is extremely limited and they can’t afford home care. One bad fall, Ida fears, would mean Saul… Read More

John F. Sampson comes from a long line of Bay Area civic leaders and community builders. He and Sharon L. Litsky, his wife, are well known for their warmth, creativity, and passion for the causes they believe in. John helps lead JFCS as a Board member and Sharon is also a former JFCS Board member who has left her unique and indelible mark on the agency. Each year this powerhouse couple brings their enthusiasm and welcoming smiles to their roles on the JFCS Fammy Gala Committee, which they chaired in 2009. As a well-respected forensic appraiser and property manager in… Read More

San Francisco Chronicle By Filipa A. Ioannou At Francisco Middle School in San Francisco’s North Beach, more than 80 percent of the students speak a language other than English at home — and they were quick to pick up on the talk about immigration during the recent presidential debates. “There’s a total undercurrent of fear here for our particular students,” says Marna Blanchard, a social studies teacher at Francisco, where students’ other languages include Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean. The complicated emotions students feel as they observe current events — from President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to build a border wall… Read More