News & Impact

Although Mark Menell still considers himself a New Yorker at heart, the accomplished venture capitalist has been a Californian for over two decades and has contributed to the success of JFCS as a Board member since the early 2000s. Currently a general partner at the investment firm, Partech Ventures, he has spent his distinguished career building, advising, and investing in technology, media, and telecommunications businesses. As a parent, Mark says, “there are certain values and experiences I want to pass along to my daughters and my involvement with JFCS helps me set an example for them of what caring for… Read More

The Christian Science Monitor by Michael B. Farrell and Jessica Mendoza Can kids be encouraged to let go of the virtual world – occasionally – and engage in the real one? Can they stop posting selfies long enough to think of someone else? The answer is yes. But there are bound to be some anxious moments for parents along the way. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.—Jake Lee, a tanned California teenager in baggy shorts and a T-shirt, is lounging on the floor of his parents’ midcentury home. They live in a suburban Silicon Valley enclave of tech workers, cyber-savvy kids, and the… Read More

Twelve years ago, JFCS Executive Director, Dr. Anita Friedman, visited her father’s ancestral village in the Polish countryside. Since then she has returned to Gniewoszow multiple times and joins thousands of Jews who have traveled to Poland since the fall of communism. Friedman has built relationships with the local community and helped rededicate its Jewish cemetery as she grapples with her family’s lost homeland. She is also teaching teens in the Bay Area about this important history. JFCS is the leader in Holocaust education in Northern California, and thousands of students each year learn about the Holocaust and other genocides… Read More

J Weekly By Sue Barnett Gniewoszow, Poland—Twelve years ago, brought her family from San Francisco to Poland to visit the ancestral village of her father. It would be her first time in Gniewoszow, one of the many towns dotting the Polish countryside where Jews made up a majority of the population before the war—and none after. More than 200 of her relatives had lived here. All were killed in the Holocaust in death camps like Treblinka and Auschwitz. Only her father made it out alive. Friedman, executive director of S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services, wanted to share the… Read More

When the JFCS Holocaust Center first received an old and tattered school notebook written in Polish and pulled from the ashes of Auschwitz, JFCS Executive Director Dr. Anita Friedman suspected the power the mysterious volume contained as she turned each carefully penned page. Since the manuscript’s publication in 2014 Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto has been an international sensation, sold alongside The Diary of Anne Frank and, at last count, translated into 15 languages worldwide. This summer Krakow’s Galicia Jewish Museum has a new exhibit titled, The Girl In The Diary, In Search… Read More

Jewish identity is changing in America, and that’s especially true for many Bay Area Jews in their 20s, 30s and early 40s, some of whom are recent transplants with busy careers. So how are these millennials finding meaning in being Jewish today? JFCS has four different programs that answer this very question. Young Professional Community Connection: Behind the Scenes Amanda Merriweather, a technology company recruiter in her twenties, volunteers every month through JFCS’ Young Professional Community Connection. “For me, the community around the culture is how I connect with Judaism,” says Amanda. “The opportunity to give back with like-minded… Read More