News & Impact

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

While Judaism offers beautiful lifecycle traditions and rituals for those who are grieving, Jewish customs for pregnancy and infant loss are only now catching up with modern times. Up to one in four women in the U.S. will experience at least one miscarriage, and many others will experience a stillbirth or infertility at some point. The rates are even higher in the Bay Area where many delay starting a family until later in life. When this kind of devastating loss occurs, women—as well as their partners, families, and friends—have historically been left without a clear Jewish path for rituals, support,… Read More

The Mercury News By Jacqueline Lee It was her mother’s intuition that spared Denise Elbert from the gas chambers during the Jewish Holocaust in World War II. Elbert was 9 months old in 1942 when she boarded a train headed for Sobibor with her mom and dad. Young Jewish Slovakian families, like the Elberts, had been told they were needed to help build a major German city, and locals lined the platform to see them off. When Elbert’s mother spotted a good childhood friend, she decided to ask the friend to care for her daughter until the couple got settled… Read More

For eight special nights beginning this year on December 24, we light the candles and celebrate anew the happy and ancient Festival of Lights—Hanukkah. Approximately 2,000 years ago in 165 BCE, and led by a small group of principled Jews named the Maccabees, the brutal rule of the Syrian Greeks was overthrown and the Jews were once again free to continue their traditions, religion, and community. They were finally free to be themselves—to practice Judaism as they wished, and to be openly proud of who they were and what they stood for. Judaism properly understood is both an ethical system… Read More

The Press Democrat By Christi Warren Several generations have come and gone since May 1945 when the last prisoners were liberated from the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. The Holocaust today feels far away, especially for youth increasingly separated from not only the harsh realities of a world at war, but the scope of Germany’s campaign of genocide. For years, Jewish groups have worked to bring Holocaust survivors into classrooms to discuss their time in the camps, to tell their stories. But that population is quickly dwindling — fewer than 100,000 survivors remain — which is what sparked… Read More