News & Impact

A consortium of Bay Area Jewish institutions and a national museum invite community members to come together on Sunday, April 7, for They Did Not Stand Idly By: Yom HaShoah and the 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an afternoon program marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. The free program will be held at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (JCCSF), 3200 California St. It is co-presented by the JCCSF, Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ Holocaust Center, Lehrhaus Judaica, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the San Francisco branch of the Anti-Defamation League of the Central Pacific Region, and the United… Read More

The theme of Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ 29th Annual Fammy Awards Gala, to be held on Saturday evening, March 9, at San Francisco’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, is “Love Stories”—and for good reason. This year’s honorees are esteemed community members who, with love and concern, have transformed painful situations into opportunities to help others. Gala awardees include United States Senator Dianne Feinstein, community leader Roselyne “Cissie” Swig, journalist John Rothmann, Max R. Garcia, Earl Rabb, and Naomi Lauter, as well as Allen, Norman, and Tauba Weiss and the late Lonny Darwin, who is being recognized posthumously. They are all being honored… Read More

Following the Holocaust, a tragedy of epic proportions, how can one retain faith not only in a higher being, but also in the goodness of all humankind? That open-ended question is at the heart of the thoughtful and poignant documentary Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance after the Holocaust, which will be screened at Congregation Shomrei Torah on Sat., Jan. 19, 7:00 pm. Directed by Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky, the film focuses on Mr. Daum and his family, who, almost 60 years after World War II, visit Poland and meet with the righteous Gentiles who hid the father and… Read More

San Francisco, Calif. – San Francisco’s observance of Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Day of Remembrance—will take place on Sunday, April 27, 1:30 – 6:00 pm, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California Street. The afternoon program, entitled Remember and Retell: Our Sacred Responsibility, is free and open to the public. Highlights of the program include: • Workshops with Holocaust survivors, who will share personal experiences before and during World War II (1:30 pm) • The panel discussion “The Place of Holocaust in Jewish Memory, Identity, and Education: New Perspectives from Israel, North America, and the Next Generation” (3:00 pm)… Read More

The year 1850 is significant for the Bay Area. California became a state, San Francisco was incorporated, and one of the oldest social service agencies in the country—now known as Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties (JFCS)—was established by a group of Bavarian Jews who had immigrated to San Francisco at the time of the California Gold Rush. This exciting time in history is brought vividly to life in JFCS: Centuries of Pioneering. The book seamlessly connects the agency’s development to the Bay Area’s growth and shows how the stories of San… Read More

After surviving overt homophobia during the pre-Stonewall days and the devastation wrought by the AIDS crisis, countless older gay men and lesbians—many of whom were on the frontlines of the civil rights battles for the past 40 or 50 years—are creeping back into the closet. Gen Silent, the award-winning documentary to be screened at Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) in San Francisco on Thurs., Oct. 6, 6:00 pm, explains why. The hour-long film focuses on six LGBT seniors who face the challenges of aging and health issues while contending with a health-care system that seems oblivious to the needs… Read More