News & Impact

Bay Area Reporter by Cynthia Laird Jewish Family and Children’s Services has announced that its board of trustees member Joyce Newstat and her spouse, community and business leader Susan Lowenberg, have established the Seymour Newstat Endowment Fund at JFCS to benefit Holocaust survivors who participate in the agency’s social and educational program called Cafe by the Bay. Read More from the Bay Area Reporter… Read More

The Seymour Newstat Endowment Fund will make distributions each year to support Passover seders for the Café by the Bay program. The fund will exist in perpetuity and will be used for Holocaust education, after there is no longer a need for Café by the Bay programs. It was the joy that a particular JFCS program brought to her father’s life that prompted Joyce Newstat, along with her spouse, Susan Lowenberg, to establish a named endowment fund in his loving memory. Seymour Newstat did not talk much about his life during World War II—which included time in a work camp,… Read More

Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) is pleased to announce that its Board of Trustees member Joyce Newstat and her spouse, community and business leader Susan Lowenberg, recently established the Seymour Newstat Endowment Fund at JFCS to benefit Holocaust survivors who participate in the agency’s social and educational program called Café by the Bay. Specifically, the fund will support Café by the Bay’s annual Passover seder, which attracts many Holocaust survivors throughout the Bay Area. Remaining distributions from the fund will be used to educate young people about the Holocaust and to advance moral courage, tolerance, and social justice. The… Read More

J Weekly by Dan Pine She was only 14. A sensitive Jewish girl with a flair for writing, trapped in the maelstrom of the Holocaust. The only repository for her deepest feelings: a diary, found abandoned soon after the war. Her name was not Anne. Her name was Rywka. Read More from J Weekly… Read More

Mitch P.’s demanding job requires long hours and significant travel. Though mild-mannered and congenial during the day, “I undergo a huge transformation once I walk through the door at night,” he admits. “I turn into this big grouch. I turn away from my 2-year-old’s hugs, and I snap when my 4-year-old starts jumping up and down and squealing. I know they’re excited to see me, but sometimes I feel like a gay Archie Bunker. “All I want,” Mitch adds, “are dinner on the table and a little peace and quiet. Of course, I feel guilty about it—and a little scared,… Read More

The JFCS Holocaust Center in partnership with Lehrhaus Judaica today announced the publication of The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc. After more than 70 years in obscurity, the diary of a teenage girl that was found at Auschwitz in 1945 will be revealed for the first time to the public on March 10, 2014. Accompanied by rich background materials and edited by National Jewish Book Award recipient Alexandra Zapruder, the diary is destined to become an important source of inspiration for students of the Holocaust around the world. In 1940, the Nazis forced young Rywka Lipszyc (pronounced Rif-ka Lip-shitz) and her… Read More