Holocaust Awareness, One Penny at a Time

“I don’t want people to forget.”   That is what Georgie, a middle school student in San Mateo, found herself thinking when she was asked to explore topics for a two-year-learning project at school. As her friends explored starting a catering business or learning how to train pets, Georgie wondered how she could share about a Read More

Posted by Admin on November 27, 2023
Small Acts of Defiance: A Look Inside Heinz Fisher's Notebook

by Andrew Roth, Archivist at the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Tauber Library and Archives On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the Read More

Posted by Admin on November 7, 2023
"You have a story. And you have to tell it."

George didn’t think he had a story to tell. His daughter, Elizabeth, convinced him otherwise. “I didn’t have to go to a concentration camp. I didn’t have to hide in someone’s closet. I was hidden in plain view. But my daughter said, You have a story. And you have to tell it.” – George George Read More

Posted by Admin on October 4, 2023
Remembering the Forgotten Genocide of the Herero and Nama

by Angelique Silva, YouthFirst Summer Intern In 1884, Germany (a minor power in Africa at the time) ruled over south-west Africa. After Germany had taken over, the Herero and Nama grew sick of the colonization and oppression, and in January 1904, decided to start a rebellion. With their revolt, Germany began a massacre targeting the Read More

Posted by Admin on August 22, 2023
JFCS LAUNCHES CAPITAL CAMPAIGN TO BUILD NEW, STATE-OF-THE-ART HOLOCAUST CENTER

June 6, 2023, San Francisco—The Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) Holocaust Center has announced the public phase of a $45 million capital campaign to build a new, state-of-the-art Holocaust Center, library, and archive.   The JFCS Holocaust Center is widely recognized statewide, nationally, and internationally as a leader in Holocaust and genocide education. The organization Read More

Posted by Admin on May 31, 2023
What is a Symbol?

The Corruption and Reclaiming of the Jewish Star By Dr. Yedida Kanfer, Director of Collections and Programming  This Jewish American Heritage Month, we consider how the meaning of the Jewish Star has changed over time. Consider the blue and gold logo of the Golden State Warriors, with the Golden Gate Bridge in its center, or Read More

Posted by Admin on May 19, 2023
Morgan Blum Schneider Receives Prestigious Diller Educator Award

On March 23, 2023, the four recipients of the Diller Educator Awards and the recipient of the Diller Prize for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement were announced. The recipient of the Experiential and Communal Diller Educator Award is Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of the Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) Holocaust Center, who has been an instrumental Read More

Posted by Admin on May 11, 2023
From the Tauber Archives: Torah Ornaments Recovered from the Ashes of Kristallnacht

The following article is an excerpt from forward.com, written by Yedida S. Kanfer, PhD; Director of Collections and Programming at the JFCS Holocaust Center Several years ago, a Holocaust survivor came to see me at the JFCS Holocaust Center Tauber Library and Archives. He had left his hometown of Frankenwinheim, Germany as a child, several Read More

Posted by Admin on April 20, 2023
Events in Honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 2023

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, testimony with George Elbaum, JFCS William J Lowenberg Speakers Bureau Presented in partnership with the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, and the Consulates of Germany, Israel and Luxembourg. This program will include an introduction by California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis and testimony with George Elbaum. Watch the recording here:

Posted by Admin on January 19, 2023
JFCS Holocaust Center Leads First Statewide Symposium on Holocaust and Genocide Education

Holocaust and genocide education is mandated in the state of California, but many educators lack the resources they need to effectively teach this sensitive and difficult subject. With antisemitism at its highest levels in recent history, many are wondering how to correct course.   This November, the JFCS Holocaust Center held its inaugural symposium of the Read More

Posted by Admin on December 12, 2022
Pell University Fellow Reflects On The Holocaust and Current Day Antisemitism

Jules, Pell University Fellow, 2021-22 I was catching up with my close friend Caroline over the phone in late January, “There were swastikas on the bench in front of my house”, my friend said,  “and then more were drawn around my block. I didn’t know what to do at first, so I took photos, called Read More

Posted by Admin on June 2, 2022
Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor Changed My World

By Zoe Stricker, a participant in the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Conversation Circle 2020 It has never been lost on me that my generation is one of the last to be in contact with survivors of the Holocaust, so when I learned about the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Conversation Circle, I was eager to partake. I was so curious to hear from a survivor about how they navigated Read More

Posted by Admin on September 13, 2021
The Social Construction of Coffee

By Shayna Dollinger, Pell University Fellow at the JFCS Holocaust Center Coffee is one of the oldest luxuries and strongest addictions. From Costa Rica to Tanzania and all across the globe, coffee tells stories. But what stories does coffee tell about one of the darkest periods in Jewish history? Coffee first arrived in Europe in Read More

Posted by Admin on April 13, 2021
My Bar Mitzvah Project: Encounters with Antisemitism and Resilience

In January 2020, I was only a month away from my Bar Mitzvah. On winter break, my family and I went to Jamestown, California in the Gold Country on the way back from a trip to the mountains and a stop to visit the Gold Rush town of Columbia. We went into an old antique Read More

Posted by Admin on October 12, 2020
Japanese Internment in San Francisco

Turning Our Gaze to What is Around Us By Michael Campos, PhD   As a JFCS Tauber Holocaust Educator Fellow with the Holocaust Center, I spent the summer immersed in Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. We traced the conditions that magnified antisemitism throughout Europe and learned Read More

Posted by Admin on March 26, 2019
Recent Holocaust and Genocide Articles

Curated by Alexis Herr Is Genocide Predictable? Researchers Say Absolutely NPR, December 20, 2018 The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Dartmouth University created a model to predict genocide and are now putting it to use. Read Article> Son of local Rabbi Helps Genocide Orphans in Rwanda J– The Jewish News of Northern California, December 28, 2018 Read More

Posted by Admin on January 4, 2019
Resistance and Resilience

The Meaning of Hanukkah By Morgan Blum Schneider Hanukkah is the Hebrew word for dedication. During this year’s celebration I find myself reflecting on what dedication required and meant during the time of the Maccabees (160 BCE) and the Holocaust (1933 to 1945), and what it means to me as the director of the Holocaust Read More

Posted by Admin on December 6, 2018
The Promised Lands of Eastern Europe, Past and Present

By Yedida Kanfer, PhD In 1899, Polish writer Wladyslaw Reymont wrote a book entitled The Promised Land. Its subject was the city of Lodz, the “Polish Manchester,” which boomed as a textile center of the Russian Empire in the late nineteenth century. Reymont intended the title of his book to be sardonic, a critique of Read More

Posted by Admin on September 4, 2018
The Plight of the Romani People

Europe’s Most Persecuted Minority By Nikki Bambauer Over the past several years, I have become increasingly troubled by the widespread use of the word “gypsy” in pop culture. Among young Americans, the term is synonymous with “free spirited” and “adventurous.” A quick search of “#gypsy” on Instagram will present you with images of long haired Read More

Posted by Admin on August 2, 2018
A Day in the Life of the Tauber Holocaust Library and Archives

Interacting with the Past in the Present By Yedida Kanfer, PhD My name is Yedida and I have the privilege of managing the Tauber Holocaust Library and Archives at the Holocaust Center. What is an archive? Theoretically, an archive is anything that you store, or a place where you store it. Our archive traces the Read More

Posted by Admin on July 6, 2018
Recent Holocaust and Genocide Articles

Curated by Nikki Bambauer Friends separated by the Holocaust reunite in California Associated Press, April 13, 2018 Separated for 76 years, two Holocaust survivors had an emotional reunion last month in Los Angeles. Read Article > Everyone Supports Preventing Atrocity Crimes, But What Works? The Global Observatory, May 7, 2018 Since the Nuremberg Trials after the Read More

Posted by Admin on June 6, 2018
Overlooked but Not Forgotten

The Voices of Women in the Holocaust By Morgan Blum Schneider “Respond to hate with love… it is the only thing that works” –Helen Farkas, z”l [1] Why does it continue to be important to teach young women about great women in history? As Gershon Bacon reminds us, there is a “persistent tendency to assume the Read More

Posted by Admin on February 6, 2018
We continue to remember
The JFCS Holocaust Center is comprised of the Tauber Holocaust Library and Education Program, the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship, the Speakers Bureau, the Day of Learning, the Oral History Project and the Zisovich Fellowships programs, as well as The Next Chapter Project. All of these organizations operate on the generous support of our donors.
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