News & Impact

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

Like many children who had a parent who survived the Holocaust, Lydia Preisler Shorenstein felt an obligation to find a way to honor her father’s memories and experiences, as well as to educate others about the tragedy of the Holocaust so that history would not continue to repeat itself. For Lydia the call to action came when she and her late husband, Doug Shorenstein, visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. along with her family, including Lydia’s parents, Simon and Etelka. Simon Preisler was born in Fancsicovo, Czechoslovakia to an observant Jewish family. A survivor of Auschwitz,… Read More

J Weekly By Dan Pine High school teacher Jessica Vaughn’s students have no trouble relating to Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler in the 1930s. Whether from Latin America, Southeast Asia or the Middle East, the teens know what it means to flee one’s homeland for safety. Most have refugees in their own families. That explains why teaching the Holocaust through the book “The Children of Willesden Lane” resonated with her English Language Development class at San Lorenzo’s Arroyo High School. Written by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen, the book recounts the story of Golabek’s mother, Lisa Jura, a Jewish piano prodigy… Read More

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