News & Impact

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

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

A Legacy of Remembrance and Resilience To an observer, Zoe Goldfarb (center) and her peers look like any other group of young professionals when they get together—telling stories, sharing a meal, and catching up on each other’s lives. But this group, called 3gSF, has something very important in common. They call themselves “3Gs”—as in third generation—and they are all grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. Living Links between Holocaust Survivors and Future Generations “3G is the bridge generation,” says Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of Education at the JFCS Holocaust Center, noting that they are the ones with personal relationships with both… Read More

A few years ago Beverly* knew she was in trouble but didn’t know where to turn. Surgery left her with excruciating stomach and joint pain, making it difficult to walk. Beverly had to leave her part-time job due to her disability and was behind on her rent. One day she returned home to find a notice in her mail: her rent for her Peninsula apartment was going up $200 a month—an astronomical amount on her small fixed income. Feeling despondent, she talked to a friend who said, “Have you ever thought about calling JFCS?” “I never considered myself the type… Read More