News & Impact

J Weekly By Rob Gloster As a child, Iris Bendahan was confused when her grandmother would speak of relatives who were “not here because of Hitler.” It wasn’t until her sixth-grade class in Israel saw an exhibition on the Holocaust that she finally understood. As an adult, the former religious school principal at Congregation Beth David in Saratoga has made it her mission to ensure Bay Area kids have no such confusion. Bendahan, 57, personally created a Holocaust museum that has been on display each spring at Beth David since 2009. This year, it will be available for viewing until… Read More

J Weekly By Rob Gloster Berta Kohut endured more than 1,000 days at Auschwitz. She suffered through transfers to Ravensbruck concentration camp and the Birkenau death camp. Having somehow survived and started a family back in her native Czechoslovakia, the last thing she wanted to do was tell her two sons about those horrors. But when her seven grandchildren were old enough to understand, she shared her Holocaust nightmares. “When I was growing up, it was a taboo subject in our family. My father protected her from talking about it,” said her son, Tom Areton. “It’s easier for her to… Read More

Prominent Holocaust Scholar from USC Shoah Foundation, Stephen D. Smith, Ph.D., will discuss a major new initiative that takes Bay Area survivors’ testimonies to a global audience. For Immediate Release: Mon., Apr. 17, 2017 (San Francisco, CA) – Community members are invited to observe Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on Sunday, April 23 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. This community memorial service bears witness to those who have perished in the Holocaust and educates young people about the meaning of their legacy. This year’s observance, titled The Future of Our Past, A Conversation about Memory and Testimony,… Read More

There are about 14 million Jews in the world today—and so, as the saying goes, there are 14 million different ways of being Jewish. Making its way across this wide expanse of Jewish identity and affiliation is the Passover seder, which finds its way into millions of homes, more than any other Jewish ritual. In spite of the Jewish People’s great diversity, the seder continues to enjoy widespread appeal. Why? The Passover seder was established a little under 2,000 years ago, in response to the urgent existential question that arose in the wake of Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple:… Read More

When Manny Kagan and his family stepped off the plane to start their new life in the United States, he knew from his first day in San Francisco that he was in a town like no other. In the years that have followed Manny has become a successful businessman, a well-loved philanthropist, and a talented photographer. A long-time member of JFCS’ Emigre Committee, Manny has been an instrumental supporter and voice for the thousands of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who were helped by JFCS to start new lives in California over the past forty years. A Life Purpose… Read More

J Weekly By Carly Nairn While most high school students wouldn’t choose to spend their weekends inside a classroom, Piedmont High School senior Danny DeBare did. The Jewish teen, along with hundreds of his peers, gathered last Sunday at a San Francisco high school to bring Jewish history into focus. “Participation is everything to get the full effect of learning the history,” said DeBare. Now in its 15th year, the Day of Learning, organized by the JFCS Holocaust Center, brought together Holocaust survivors in the Bay Area and 750 students and educators from schools in the region — from… Read More