News & Impact

Nora, a single mother, has worked hard to build a small but highly regarded local business while raising her only son. In late 2019, Nora was overjoyed to purchase her first home. Almost immediately, the coronavirus pandemic hit and Nora feared having to shut her business down altogether. She spent the next six months struggling to make her mortgage payments, covering her son’s college tuition, and using her credit cards to stay afloat. The financial stress was taking a toll on Nora: she would often stay up all night with crippling anxiety. A friend who had heard about JFCS’ Pandemic … Read More

A woman in California, whose mother died from COVID-19 in New York, is struggling with the pain of never getting to say goodbye. A man in his 80’s, whose wife is alone in the ICU, now must quarantine from the rest of his family. An emergency room doctor, who has young children at home, is torn every day between caring for her patients and putting her family at risk. These are just three of the many calls that JFCS has answered since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people have lost a loved one, and those who haven’t… Read More

Caryn Siegel, a spiritual care volunteer for JFCS’ Jewish Chaplaincy Services serving Stanford Medicine, has been dedicating her time to supporting hospital patients for fifteen years. Caryn offers her patients a compassionate presence and a listening ear. She also brings insight from a very personal experience. In 1987, Caryn’s son, Ilan, was born at Stanford Hospital severely disabled. Ilan was in and out of Stanford’s Intensive Care Unit for the next seventeen years of his life. Caryn vividly remembers sitting in the hospital with her husband, Mark, over the years—the two of them feeling very alone. When Ilan passed… Read More

Everyone will have a story one day about what changed for them during the pandemic. For David*, almost everything has changed. David’s business has had to close due to the pandemic, and he doesn’t know when he will earn an income again. On top of this, David is going through a difficult divorce, and is suffering from the lack of connection he now has with his two children. Feeling hopeless and alone, David confided in a friend that he wasn’t sure if he wanted go on living. Knowing about JFCS’ teletherapy services for people of all ages, David’s friend immediately… Read More

When Claire was told—after three months of furlough due to the pandemic—that she would not have her job at a Jewish organization to go back to, she panicked. After suffering 10 years of violence and emotional abuse, Claire had just separated from her husband and started rebuilding a life for her two young children. Without an income, how would they stay in their new apartment? How could she guarantee that her kids would stay safe? COVID-19 has brought with it another pandemic: domestic violence has risen as stress, proximity, and increased substance abuse take their toll. In this short time,… Read More

Last month, an alarming incident in Marin County schools reminded us that antisemitism exists, even in our own backyard. An Instagram account associated with Redwood High School in Larkspur named specific Jewish students in Marin and asked for followers to contribute to a list of names. The account was titled “Redwood students organized (against) semitism.” This incident represents an urgent and growing problem—what has happened in Marin schools is unfortunately not unique. Acts of antisemitism have been reported in schools across the Bay Area, most recently in San Mateo County, and represent a larger, national shift. A study released … Read More