The JFCS Holocaust Center is pleased to co-present seven films at this year’s film festival! Be sure to use the promo code JFCSHC39 for a special deal. This code takes $2 off any regularly priced screening.  We look forward to seeing you there! Afterward | directed by Ofra Bloch In this documentary, psychoanalyst and trauma expert Read More

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

For the latest Holocaust & genocide news and events, follow us on social media! Facebook.com/JFCSHolCenter Instagram.com/JFCSHolocaustCenter Twitter.com/HolocaustJFCS LinkedIn.com/company/Holocaust-Center    

Join us for workshop with Dr. Magdalena Gross and filmmaker Yoav Potash! Sun., Nov. 11, 2018 2:00 – 6:30 PM Flora Lamson Hewlett Library Building 2400 Ridge Road Berkeley, CA RSVP > Hear from Dr. Magdalena Gross on teaching the history of the Holocaust through Structured Academic Controversy. This will be followed by an exclusive Read More

Join us for a fascinating discussion on Holocaust Memory in Poland: Attitudes, Studies, Politics, and More with Dr. Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs and JFCS Holocaust Center Associate Director Alexis Herr! Thu., Nov. 29, 2018 6:00 pm Graduate Theological Union Berkeley, CA Different historical narratives and collective memories linked to the post-WWII constructions of national identity still divide Western Read More

The JFCS Holocaust Center is excited to sponsor the upcoming premiere of Faces of Genocide! Sun., Nov. 11, 2018 5:00 pm Cowell Theater at Fort Mason 2 Marina Blvd, Building C San Francisco Faces of Genocide is a unique short documentary about the shameful succession of genocidal atrocities throughout the 20th and beginning of the 21st Read More

  Fall 2018 Lecture Series at San Francisco State University We are excited to co-sponsor the Department of Jewish Studies at SFSU’s Fall 2018 lecture series The Holocaust Across the Disciplines! All lectures are free and open to the public. Learn more >

The JFCS Holocaust Center is pleased to co-present The Obligation! We are proud to partner with The Mitzvah Project and PlayGround to present The Obligation, an acclaimed one-person Holocaust drama written and performed by Roger Grunwald. Thur., Oct. 11 – Sun., Nov. 4 Potrero Stage 1695 18th Street, San Francisco A child of an Auschwitz survivor and a Read More

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

Upcoming Events We are excited to partner with the Jewish Community Library on two events this Fall! Both events are free and open to the public. Europe’s Underground Railroad with Megan Koreman Wed., Oct. 3, 2018 7:00 – 8:30 pm Jewish Community Library 1835 Ellis St., San Francisco Learn More > Hear from Megan Koreman, Read More

Join 3gSF and the JFCS young professional community for our second annual gathering to enjoy the SF Jewish Film Festival followed by a late night happy hour. Tue., July 24, 2018 6:00 – 10:00 pm The Castro Theatre 429 Castro St., San Francisco Register > Everyone is welcome to come out to watch The Waldheim Waltz Read More

Local San Francisco artist Aimee Golant has just unveiled one of her newest pieces, the Shoah Aliyah placeholder. We are grateful that Aimee has chosen to donate 10% of the proceeds from this piece to the JFCS Holocaust Center. The shape of this Torah placeholder is reminiscent of the yellow Star of David badge which many Jews were Read More

We are excited to partner with Seattle-based Music of Remembrance (MOR) for an upcoming performance of Voices of Witness. Thu., May 24, 2018 7:30 pm San Francisco Conservatory of Music Purchase Tickets > The program marks MOR’s fourth annual concert in the Bay Area, premiering new compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christophe Chagnard. Sakamoto’s new work, Snow Read More

Holocaust & Genocide Educators Receive Prestigious Grants Each year, the Preisler Shorenstein Institute celebrates the role of teachers in the field of Holocaust education with the Morris Weiss Award. Morris Weiss, a Holocaust survivor, was a founder of the JFCS Holocaust Center and was dedicated to fighting discrimination and antiseminism. His family established this scholarship Read More

The Story of Gerhard Panning By Seth Eislund Seth Eislund is a senior at Stuart Hall High School in San Francisco. He has participated in both the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship and the Next Chapter. Most recently, Seth served as an intern for Dr. Alexis Herr, Associate Director, and conducted research for the Next Generation Read More

Holocaust survivors are dwindling, but their children are just getting started The JFCS Holocaust Center’s newest education initiative, the Next Generation Speakers Bureau (NGSB), was recently featured in the J. Weekly! The Next Generation Speakers Bureau is a training program for second- and third-generation speakers to share their families’ stories of survival during the Holocaust. Read More

We are excited to partner with film director Jon Kean on upcoming screenings of After Auschwitz! May 4 – 10, 2018 AMC Van Ness 1000 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco Showtimes > After Auschwitz is a “Post-Holocaust” documentary that follows six extraordinary women after their liberation from Nazi concentration camps, capturing what it means to move from Read More

Did you or a direct ancestor lose German citizenship between 1933 and 1945 because of Nazi persecution? If so, you might be eligible to reclaim your German citizenship. We are excited to co-sponsor an upcoming workshop on the Peninsula about reclaiming German citizenship: Fri., May 11, 2018 10:30 am Peninsula Jewish Community Center 800 Foster Read More

We are pleased to co-sponsor an upcoming event at Congregation Sherith Israel. SHOAH: How Was It Humanly Possible?, an exhibit by the American Society for Yad Vashem, will be on display from April 16-19, 2018. This exhibit is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. See below for details. Don’t miss two Read More

Alexis Herr, Associate Director at the JFCS Holocaust Center, will be speaking at Tennessee Technological University on January 31. Dr. Herr and the other members of the panel will speak on the history of the American South and the history of the Holocaust to initiate a larger discussion about the legacy of complicity. Other panelists include: Dr. Betsie Read More

“A Reason to Remember” reception and presentation The JFCS Holocaust Center is pleased to partner with Mercy High School’s Farkas Center for this special event! November 9, 2017 4:00 to 6:00 pm Mercy High School 3250 19th Avenue, San Francisco 94132     All middle and high school students from San Francisco are invited to Read More

The JFCS Holocaust Center is pleased to co-present two films at this year’s festival! Vitch | directed by Sigal Bujman Eddie Vitch, a Polish Jewish entertainer and Hollywood caricaturist, found fame in pre-war Paris as a comedian. But in a dark twist, he spent the war years entertaining Nazi troops throughout Europe. This fascinating documentary follows his daughter as Read More

Through interactive and cutting-edge educational programming the JFCS Holocaust Center bring the lessons of the Holocaust alive to a new generation of students, activists, and young scholars. As a senior at Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, Jessica took part in the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Next Chapter program last year. Not only did she study Read More

Reflections on the 2016-2017 University Fellowship Each year at the JFCS Holocaust Center, students from colleges and universities throughout the Bay Area apply for the Albert Jerassy University Fellowship. As part of this JFCS Holocaust Center program, two students benefit from a nine-month intensive study of the Holocaust that includes mentoring and teaching high school students, Read More

Impressive Visual History Archive Now Available in its Entirety in San Francisco JFCS Holocaust Center, in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation founded by Steven Spielberg, now gives people full access to view thousands of video testimonies, and is one of just two sites in Northern California to do so along with Stanford University. The Visual Read More

JFCS Partners with the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow on a New Exhibit Featuring Rywka’s Diary When the JFCS Holocaust Center first received an old and tattered school notebook written in Polish and pulled from the ashes of Auschwitz, JFCS Executive Director Dr. Anita Friedman suspected the power the mysterious volume contained as she turned Read More

The JFCS Holocaust Center is pleased to co-present eight films at this year’s film festival! Be sure to use the promo code JFACSHC17 for a special deal. This code will reduce your regular ticket price to $13 (regular price $15).  We look forward to seeing you there! 116 Cameras  in Jews in Shorts: Documentaries | directed by Davina Pardo Read More

Ben’s Personal Project Ben S. is a 10th grader at The Urban School of San Francisco and a participant in the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Next Chapter program this year. As part of the program, students are matched with local Holocaust survivors, who they meet with and interview several times over the course of a semester. Read More

Ethan S. is a 10th grader at Woodside Priory and a participant in the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Next Chapter program this year. As part of the program, students are matched with local Holocaust survivors, who they meet with and interview several times over the course of a semester. Through the Next Chapter program, students learn Read More

Students Leet M. and Ella R. were matched with Holocaust survivor Stella M. during this year’s Next Chapter program. As part of the Next Chapter, students write biographies of their survivors, then create personal projects to reflect on the experience of meeting and getting to know a Holocaust survivor. For her personal project, Ella created Read More

Students Eloise M. and Ari N. were matched with Holocaust survivor Sonia K. during this year’s Next Chapter program. As part of the Next Chapter, students write biographies of their survivors, then create personal projects to reflect on the experience of meeting and getting to know a Holocaust survivor. For her personal project, Eloise created Read More

Louis’s Story Jonah K. 11th grader at Oakland Technical High School Louis D. was born in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, in 1929. He grew up in the nearby town of Arnhem. His parents operated an electrical store where they sold various appliances. Louis had one older sister. His parents were not particularly religious, but they believed Read More

Lori’s Story Idan S. 10th grader at Jewish Community High School of the Bay Lori S. was born in 1925 in Vienna Austria. Her father and mother were not very wealthy but also not poor. She grew up with a brother who was four years older, and two cousins. Her family owned a shop, with Read More

Emma T. is an 11th grader at International High School and a participant in the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Next Chapter program this year. As part of the program, students are matched with local Holocaust survivors, who they meet with and interview several times over the course of a semester. Through the Next Chapter program, students Read More

Students Sarah F. and William B. were matched with Holocaust survivor Leon R. during this year’s Next Chapter program. As part of the Next Chapter, students write biographies of their survivors, then create personal projects to reflect on the experience of meeting and getting to know a Holocaust survivor. For his personal project, William wrote “Darkness Read More