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

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

Mark Bely says that what he knows about JFCS is that it is a go to organization. When you need help, have questions, or want to give back to the community, you go to JFCS. Mark was nine years old when his family left Russia for a new life in San Francisco. His parents, Boris and Larisa, moved the family to be closer to Boris’ father, who had made the same journey a year before. With hard work and the help of JFCS’ Emigre Services, the three generations of the Bely family soon adjusted to life in America—Boris became… Read More

Isaac Davis-Silverstein admits that growing up in wealthy Marin County was, at times, a struggle—he often felt like he had so much less than others did. During his high school years, he was acutely aware of the extravagance around him. Soon, however, he began to realize that his experience was not a shortcoming, but rather a strength. “Not having everything given to me as a child helped me learn to appreciate the things I do have,” Isaac explains. Isaac felt that he could empathize with people in a way that some of his peers could not, and he began to… Read More

Anna P, Recipient of JFCS Educational Loans and Grants, Found Herself on the Front Lines of the COVID-19 Outbreak When Anna P received the JFCS educational loans and grants that allowed her to attend the University of Massachusetts, she never would have believed that she would enter the nursing field just as COVID-19 had begun its spread, in the epicenter of the pandemic, in a public hospital in New York City. Anna, whose family emigrated to the Bay Area from Ukraine when she was a child, moved to New York after college. After some career exploration, she discovered her true… Read More

Upon receiving the news that he was one of the recipients of the Vivienne S. Camp Scholarship, Ziven Posner was in disbelief. He read the email from JFCS’ Financial Aid Center two more times before he convinced himself that it was real. He then shouted and started to cry. Maya Ben Tov, the other recipient awarded a scholarship, had a similar response to the news. “I was so shocked and happy! I know there were many qualified applicants for the scholarship. This relieves me of needing a student loan for now. I’m so grateful!” The Vivienne S. Camp Scholarship is… Read More