News & Impact

KCBS reporter Scott Lettieri interviewed students at City Arts and Technology High School in San Francisco where teacher, Allison McManis, is engaging her classroom in the JFCS Holocaust Center’s The Children of Willesden Lane BAY AREA BIG READ. Click Play to Listen:… Read More

Have you read Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto? Edited by Dr. Anita Friedman, it’s the astonishing, must-read diary of a 14-year-old Polish teenager who recounts life—and death—in one of the largest ghettos during World War II before she is deported to Auschwitz. The diary itself is remarkable—and so is the story of how it came to be published. Plucked from The Ashes During the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz, a doctor from the Red Army plucked Rywka’s notebook from the ashes. But it took over 70 years of languishing in obscurity before the diary… Read More

When Joyce Newstat first saw the concert pianist and acclaimed storyteller Mona Golabek perform The Children of Willesden Lane, she says, “I saw what a huge talent Mona was, and that her story would be an incredible and dynamic educational tool.” Two years after that night at the theater, the JFCS Holocaust Center is producing its largest undertaking yet—The Children of Willesden Lane Bay Area BIG READ, a powerful education program which culminates in an award-winning theatrical production at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. 7,000 students and teachers—grades six to twelve—will be participating from throughout Northern California. Toward the… Read More

For James, 7, making friends didn’t come easily. He had a hard time sitting still. He was impulsive and would often blurt things out in class. He had trouble starting conversations with his classmates and he struggled with sharing and taking turns on the playground equipment. Fortunately, James’s first-grade class is one of the happy participants of social skills groups facilitated by JFCS’ Parents Place. James’ teacher started him in the group and within a  few months he was coming out of his shell, engaging more with his peers and, to his surprise, he even made a friend. Soon… Read More

J Weekly By Dan Pines When Bay Area public school students return to class in August, their education on the Holocaust will take a new and decidedly musical turn. The S.F.-based JFCS Holocaust Center has launched “The Children of Willesden Lane Bay Area Big Read,” a course for middle- and high school students. Read more at the J Weekly >… Read More

When Alex Ike got the call letting him know he’d been chosen to receive a scholarship through JFCS’ Financial Aid Center he almost fell out of his chair. He says, “I called my mother immediately, and she practically screamed … we were both ecstatic.” The same excitement and relief were palpable at the home of seventeen year old Simone Leibowitz after learning that she would also be a recipient of a $26,000 scholarship to be disbursed over four years. The JFCS Financial Aid Center’s Loans and Grants Committee reviewed applications from Bay Area high school seniors as part of a… Read More