News & Impact

Read the original article on jweekly.com > Anita Friedman thought she’d seen it all: wildfires, earthquakes, 9/11 and the brutal 2008 economic recession. But the longtime executive director of the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services had not seen it all—not until the onset of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, which she calls “the deepest and most profound crisis we’ve had to deal with in the last generation. This combines both a health crisis with a mental-health crisis with an economic crisis, and it affects everyone.” Having served the local Jewish community for more than four decades, Friedman is… Read More

KQED’ Forum with Michael Krasny Death and saying goodbye—they are among life’s most mysterious and challenging phenomena. The theatrical production “End of Life” opens a dialogue about these experiences via staged readings of two Greek tragedies written by Sophocles. Artistic director Bryan Doerries joins Forum, along with award-winning actor David Strathairn and a palliative care expert, to discuss the show and making peace with mortality. Guests: David Strathairn, actor Bryan Doerries, artistic director, Theater of War Redwing Keyssar, palliative care director, Jewish Family and Children’s Services; author, “Last Acts of Kindness: Lessons for the Living from the Bedsides of the… Read More

J Weekly By Laura Paull As Sophocles surely knew, people often are able to absorb tragedy much more easily on a stage than in their own lives. That’s the principle behind an upcoming performance at the Castro Theatre, where a New York-based theater collective will guide audiences to reflect on the ultimate drama we tend to avoid. After staged readings of scenes from two plays by the ancient Greek playwright, the ensemble will ask: Is death necessarily a tragedy? “I see it, rather, as a transition,” says Judith Redwing Keyssar, palliative care director at Jewish Family and Children’s Services, sponsor… Read More

J Weekly By Karen Galatz The generation of Holocaust survivors may be passing, but thanks to a just-launched initiative in San Francisco, their testimonies will live on through their children and grandchildren. Called the Next Generation Speakers Bureau, the initiative is the brainchild of Morgan Blum Schneider, director of Jewish Family and Children Services’ Holocaust Center. The bureau is designed to address the challenge of Holocaust education when the last of the survivors are gone. “We want to ensure that the Holocaust remains a story of faces, not just a history of numbers,” said Alexis Herr, the Holocaust Center’s new… Read More

San Francisco Chronicle By Jilma L. Meneses and Anita Friedman While there are many issues plaguing our immigration system, there is one inequality that we as a nation must resolve with urgency. Passing the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act will create a long overdue pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth who were brought to our country as children and know no other home. Time is running out. There are approximately 700,000 young people who are facing the loss of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections. Of those, about 200,000 DACA recipients are in California alone,… Read More

The Press Democrat By Meg McConahey FAUX FLAMES MAY BE A GOOD IDEA FOR THE FIRE-TRAUMATIZED THIS YEAR It’s the season of soft light, when candles are flickering and hearth fires roaring. But in the aftermath of October’s firestorms, which destroyed thousands of homes in Sonoma County and shrouded the air with heavy smoke for days, many people may find themselves looking warily at those flames that used to symbolize cozy comfort and peace. “Fire has been one of those things that keeps us warm and has always had positive memories,” said Diana Klein, director of the Sonoma County Regional… Read More