News & Impact

When the San Francisco section of the National Council of Jewish Women helped establish an educational scholarship at JFCS benefiting single parents in need, it held particular resonance for NCJW Board member Linda Kurtz, who partnered with the Council to bring the scholarship to fruition. “My father died when I was 11,” Linda says, “and my mother was left to raise six children alone. We became destitute overnight.” Named in loving memory of Linda’s late mother, the Rose Mazursky Memorial Scholarship helps single mothers striving to better their and their children’s lives through educational opportunities. “I know what a little… Read More

Hundreds of supporters are set to attend Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ 31st Annual Fammy Awards Gala, which will be held Sat. evening, Mar. 21, at San Francisco’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. This year’s gala theme is “One World, One Family,” and JFCS will be honoring community leaders Lydia and Douglas Shorenstein of the Preisler Shorenstein Institute; employees of Cleanerific, JFCS’ innovative cleaning company; and Tamar Sofer-Geri, who formed a support network for parents whose children have juvenile diabetes. About the Honorees: Celebrating its 13th year, the Preisler Shorenstein Institute is pleased to support an important program of the JFCS Holocaust Center:… Read More

The facts are clear: Attending a Jewish summer camp as a child leads to a stronger identification with the Jewish community as an adult. Without the generous camp scholarships provided by JFCS, Micah and Rachel, 10-year-old twins on the Peninsula, would have missed out on this vital experience. The siblings lost their Israeli-born father to multiple sclerosis five years ago. Since then, it has been the hope of their mother, Pam, who is struggling financially, to connect her children to their father’s heritage through the Jewish summer camp experience. “But I could never afford it,” says Pam. “JFCS has helped… Read More

CBS SF Bay Area Listen to an interview with Lynne Fingerman, MSW, Director of Adoption Connection… Read More

US News and World Report by Susan Johnston Each year, U.S. citizens adopt over 100,000 children, according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway. Costs can range from very little for adopting a child from foster care to $40,000 or more for a private domestic adoption, says Nicole Witt, executive director of The Adoption Consultancy in Florida. For families having difficulty conceiving, the cost of infertility treatments can also run into the tens of thousands of dollars or more, but adoption offers a key benefit that medicine doesn’t. “[Adoption is] always a roller coaster of ups and downs, but at the… Read More

NBC Bay Area By: Lisa Fernandez, reporter Helen Farkas is one of a dwindling group of Holocaust survivors still alive to relay the horrors she experienced. At age 94, the Romanian-born woman is still an active speaker, telling children and civic groups how she scrambled for scraps of bread and escaped the infamous Auschwitz death camp march with her sister in 1945, during a guard shift in the middle of the night. Read the entire story and hear Helen’s interview from NBC Bay Area… Read More