News & Impact

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

Meryl Botkin was delighted when she heard that her granddaughter, Julia, had been accepted into the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship at the JFCS Holocaust Center. She knew that she would get the chance to see her beloved granddaughter more often throughout the school year, and it would give Julia an incredible opportunity to study the Holocaust and patterns of genocide at a college level. Julia, a student at Presentation High, a Catholic college preparatory school in San Jose, was one of a cohort of eight exceptional Bay Area high school students accepted into the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship – a… Read More

USC Shoah Foundation Adds New Holocaust Testimony Collection from JFCS to its Visual History Archive More than 900 Holocaust testimonies recorded over four decades by the Jewish Family and Children Services Holocaust Center of San Francisco (JFCS) are now fully integrated into USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive as part of the Preserving the Legacy initiative – an ambitious plan to save recorded eyewitness testimony and bring voices of genocide survivors to a wider audience. In a two-year partnership, the JFCS Holocaust Center engaged USC Shoah Foundation’s state-of-the-art infrastructure to digitize, archive and catalog Holocaust testimonies taken by JFCS in… Read More

This past year Jewish Family and Children’s Services said goodbye to one of our dearest friends, Jerry Rosenstein. A Holocaust survivor who bravely told his story after decades of silence, a businessman with keen financial acumen, a gay man who cared about human rights, and a generous person who fully gave of himself in service to others, he made an impact on JFCS equally immeasurable and enduring. As a holocaust survivor, Jerry was active in Holocaust education and a solid supporter of the JFCS Holocaust Center. Jerry’s relationship to JFCS dates back to the mid-1980s when he made his first… Read More

We are pleased to announce that 7,000 students will participate in a powerful education program with JFCS Holocaust Center this fall. Thanks to generous donors, The Children of Willesden Lane Bay Area BIG READ will be offered to Northern California middle and high school teachers and their students. This unique program teaches youth about the Holocaust, the importance of standing up against bigotry and hatred, and the transformative nature of art. The curriculum culminates in an award winning theatrical production at Herbst Theatre by concert pianist and acclaimed storyteller Mona Golabek about how the power of music helped one young… Read More