News & Impact

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

When Jessica Youngman had the chance to go Columbia University,  she needed a way to finance it. So she contacted JFCS’ Financial Aid Center, which has existed for many decades to help the people of our community get a start in life. The Center is supported by many JFCS friends, including JFCS Financial Aid Committee member Dr. Carl Grunfeld, along with his in-laws, Albert (z’’l) and Janet Schultz (z’’l). They created the Miriam Schultz Grunfeld Scholarship Fund for Youth in loving memory of Carl’s late wife as a way to pay homage to a beloved individual and former JFCS… Read More

When Rose Ludwig was growing up in a rural part of Riverside County, she was never taught about the Holocaust in school. That’s why, as a teacher at San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley Middle School, she makes sure that her students learn the Holocaust’s lessons. Her efforts earned her JFCS’ Holocaust Center’s 2014 Morris Weiss Award, which yearly goes to an exemplary educator dedicated to teaching about the Shoah and other forms of genocide. Morris Weiss, a founder of the Holocaust Center, was a survivor dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism. His family established the award in his memory.   “As a… Read More

JFCS is proud of our Loans and Grants Program graduates. Here are updates on two of our many successful alumni: Andrea Bouch-Dimondstein What do you do? Andrea Bouch-Dimondstein I’m a senior account manager at Fluxx, a San Francisco-based company that provides customized software to grant makers. I work closely with large and small foundations. Before that, I worked at Google, and I was a Kiva Fellow in Guatemala. Kiva is an international nonprofit whose Fellows oversee improvement projects worldwide through microfinancing institutions. Where did you go to college? I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego.… Read More

Anita and Ronald z’l Wornick sat for this interview in 2014. May his memory be for a blessing. Over many years, Ronald and Anita Wornick have touched the worlds of art, medical research, education, and Jewish philanthropy through gifts that have made a difference in the lives of many. But few of their gifts have meant as much to them personally as the Harry & Florence Wornick Endowment Fund for Youth Loans, which they established at JFCS as a tribute to Ron’s parents. The fund, which supports the education of promising students, recently received a boost with a significant… Read More

An outstanding student with a knack for business, Mark Khavkin was accepted into MBA programs at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Northwestern. As pleased as he was by his choices, he remained concerned about financing his education in a way that would allow him to go to school full-time without falling into debt. Fortunately, he knew about JFCS’ Educational Loan and Grants Program. JFCS provided Mark with a generous deferred-interest loan for his two years at Harvard, where he excelled academically. “The MBA program was an amazing, transformative experience,” says Mark, who now works at eBay. “It developed… Read More