- Legacy Giving Stories
A family photo, from 2001.
Thanks to the Kalinowski Family Fund, women and children whose lives have been touched by domestic violence receive direct, practical, and compassionate assistance from JFCS.
In October 1998, then-JFCS Board member Linda Kalinowski, an attorney, and her husband, Tom, a chemical engineer, established their Named Endowment Fund to assist victims of domestic violence. At the time, JFCS’ Dream Program for survivors of domestic violence operated a transitional housing residence, called Dream House, that offered comfort and safety to women and their children who had escaped abusive situations. Linda was an active and caring volunteer at Dream House.
Linda became highly sensitized to the issue of domestic abuse after opening the newspaper one morning and reading that her one-time college roommate’s sister had been killed by her husband in a fit of rage. This shocking news deepened her resolve to educate the Jewish community about the issue of domestic violence and the fact that it affects hundreds of thousands of women throughout the world, without regard to their religious, ethnic, or economic status. Linda brought this experience to her dedicated work as Chair of JFCS’ Public Issues Committee.
Through the Kalinowski Family Fund, Linda, Tom, and their daughters provide ongoing aid, kindness, and dignity to women and children who face violence directed at them by members of their own family.
Shared from the Heart
“Each moment, you are called upon to choose what you shall bring into the world. The choice is yours. So, too, the consequences.”
—Wisdom of the Jewish Sages, 11:17, translated by Rabbi Rami Shapiro
If you would like to establish a Named Endowment Fund, please contact [email protected] or 415-449-3858.