News & Impact

After 14 years, Barry and Lisa were as in love with each other as in the early days of their courtship. “When I saw and heard Lisa for the first time—at a museum exhibit—I knew she was the one for me,” says Barry. “She was warm, beautiful, and open-hearted. I’d been waiting for someone like her for my entire life. She was my beacon of light.” So when Lisa, 50, was diagnosed with uterine cancer this past October, the blow for Barry was as unbearable as the pain for Lisa. Scrambling for services to help them, Barry reached out to… Read More

Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties will hold its 27th Fammy Awards Gala on Sat., Mar. 26, at the Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco. Gala Chairs Yamilee Bermingham and Doug Winthrop; Regional Co-Chairs Lisa and John Pritzker (San Francisco), Diane and Howard Zack (Marin County), Linda and Steve Monosson (North Peninsula), Alison and Ken Ross (South Peninsula), and Jan Gilman and Michael Tonjum (Sonoma County); and the entire Gala Committee invite community members to participate in a very special evening, featuring delicious food, great company, a fabulous silent auction, and dancing with Pamela… Read More

How do you say no to injustice? Stand up for your and other people’s rights? JFCS’ Holocaust Center is helping thousands of young people to answer these questions, understand how the Holocaust came about, and learn how to prevent future genocides. Among the center’s many educational programs is its annual Day of Learning, on Sun., Mar. 13, 2011, 1:00 – 5:00 pm, at San Francisco’s Mercy High School, 3250 19th Ave. Approximately 500 high school students and teachers throughout the state will attend workshops that run the gamut: from “Where Were the Churches? The Role of the Churches in Holocaust… Read More

San Francisco Chronicle (Letter to the Editor) by Holly Pedersen and Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet We appreciated your article about the study linking bullying to students’ desire to gain popularity (“Popular youths seen as more likely to bully as tool for social climbing,” Feb. 9). Our work with Bay Area students, teachers and parents corroborate this finding. Read More from the San Francisco Chronicle… Read More

J Weekly by Andy Altman-Ohr In their mid-80s and beset by Alzheimer’s disease and two types of cancer, respectively, Jewish Russian immigrants Dina and Isaak Freylikhman of San Francisco consider themselves blessed that the L’Chaim Adult Day Health Center exists. However, the Freylikhmans and thousands of other Californians like them are in danger of losing the ability to live on their own. If the state Legislature approves Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to cut $1.7 billion from Medi-Cal, some $486 million for more than 300 Adult Day Health Care programs in the state would be eliminated. Read More from J Weekly… Read More

Thanks to the help he received from the educational loan and grant program of JFCS’ Financial Aid Center, Ben Botts is launching a career that will touch the lives of countless workers across the country. An alumnus of Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, Ben was one of five recent law-school graduates selected nationwide to serve as an Honors Program attorney at the United States Department of Labor. He says he never would have been able to achieve this success without JFCS’ support. Over the next two years, Ben will tackle a sweeping range of critical issues,… Read More