News & Impact

J Weekly By Patricia Corrigan …S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services provides respite care four hours a week and Graham visits her parents in San Francisco every weekend. “My father was my heart and soul. He was supposed to teach my kids to play tennis and to play music. And he can’t,” she says. “Because my mom has been bound to her home for three years now, she has lost her youth, her ability to work and all her friends.” Read more at the J Weekly >… Read More

When Alex Ike got the call letting him know he’d been chosen to receive a scholarship through JFCS’ Financial Aid Center he almost fell out of his chair. He says, “I called my mother immediately, and she practically screamed … we were both ecstatic.” The same excitement and relief were palpable at the home of seventeen year old Simone Leibowitz after learning that she would also be a recipient of a $26,000 scholarship to be disbursed over four years. The JFCS Financial Aid Center’s Loans and Grants Committee reviewed applications from Bay Area high school seniors as part of a… Read More

Meryl Botkin was delighted when she heard that her granddaughter, Julia, had been accepted into the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship at the JFCS Holocaust Center. She knew that she would get the chance to see her beloved granddaughter more often throughout the school year, and it would give Julia an incredible opportunity to study the Holocaust and patterns of genocide at a college level. Julia, a student at Presentation High, a Catholic college preparatory school in San Jose, was one of a cohort of eight exceptional Bay Area high school students accepted into the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship – a… Read More

What’s that Porgy and Bess song “Summer time and the livin is easy”…? You may be thinking that certainly doesn’t describe my summer so far. Many parents are expecting with school out and the pressure of schedules and homework on the backburner their children will be calmer and less anxious. While that might be true for some, summer can have its own set of stressors that can be challenging to navigate particularly if your child is already prone to anxiety. Here are a couple common scenarios and suggestions for dealing with them: Boredom: Your child(ren) are either not attending camp… Read More

J Weekly Excerpt: A Bay Area woman struggling with mid-stage Alzheimer’s was obsessed with getting the mail. Her husband, serving as her caregiver at their home, let her bring in the mail each day, but later she would forget and want to do it again. And again. When her husband repeatedly told her the mail had already come, the woman would become agitated. “She couldn’t hold on to the fact that she had already brought in the mail, and her husband felt that he had failed her,” said Andrea Korsunsky, director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ Center for Dementia… Read More

May their memories be for a blessing. Frank Stein and his life partner, Paul May, drove cross-country to San Francisco in the 1960s to seek their fortunes, knowing that they could live their lives more openly as a gay couple out west. In the years that followed they created an incredible life together and became successful businessmen. Growing up from humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York, Frank understands firsthand how some families struggle. With a generous grant to JFCS’ Parents Place, he and Paul’s success can now help parents, children, teens, and families get the tools and support they need… Read More