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

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

Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto—first published by the JFCS Holocaust Center in 2014—was recently featured in The Algemeiner. The handwritten diary—miraculously discovered intact amidst the rubble at Auschwitz—is a moving account of the life and dreams of 14-year-old Polish girl Rywka Lipszyc. After more than 70 years in obscurity, Read More

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

Rywka’s Diary, Life in the Lodz Ghetto We are proud to sponsor the free upcoming Echoes & Reflections webinar, “Rywka’s Diary, Life in the Lodz Ghetto”. Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 3:00–4:00 PM PST Learn More > The newly discovered Rywka’s Diary is a powerful historical account of life in the Lodz ghetto recorded in moving Read More

Holocaust Center Associate Director Alexis Herr, PhD will be speaking at the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University next week — Be sure to check it out if you are in the area! Wed., Oct. 3, 2018 7:00 PM Northern Arizona University 705 S Beaver St., Flagstaff, AZ Learn 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 >

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

Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto—first published by the JFCS Holocaust Center—has been awarded this year’s Historical Award by Polityka, Poland’s top newsmagazine. The handwritten diary—miraculously discovered intact amidst the rubble at Auschwitz—is a moving account of the life and dreams of 14-year-old Polish girl Rywka Lipszyc. After more than Read More

The JFCS Holocaust Center is excited to participate in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Fifth International Holocaust Studies Conference! May 30–31, 2018 Guatemala City, Guatemala Register by emailing [email protected]   This conference brings together international scholars to address the role of the police in the Holocaust, particularly in the organized murder of Jews and Roma. JFCS Holocaust 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

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

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

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

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

The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc was discovered in the rubble of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau and was published 70 years later by the JFCS Holocaust Center. In the diary, Jewish teen Rywka Lipszyc chronicles her time in the Lodz Ghetto. The Polish-language version of Rywka’s diary debuted last month, printed in partnership with Austeria Publishing House in collaboration with the POLIN Read More

Plucked from the ashes of Auschwitz and published in 2014 by the JFCS Holocaust Center, Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto has been an international sensation, sold alongside The Diary of Anne Frank. The tattered school diary written in Polish by 14-year-old Rywka Lipszyc has captivated readers around the world and has 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

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

Letters for Ralph Earlier this spring, Holocaust survivor Ralph Samuel shared his story with students at Valley View Middle School in Pleasant Hill as part of the JFCS Holocaust Center’s William J. Lowenberg Speakers Bureau. The following comments make up just a small sample of some of the feedback that we received from the students at Read More

Letters for Leon During the first week of May, Holocaust survivor Leon Rajninger shared his story with students at Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley as part of the JFCS Holocaust Center’s William J. Lowenberg Speakers Bureau. Regarding Leon’s programs, the organizing teacher wrote: “He is a treasure. My students were especially struck by his Read More

Iris Bendahan is one of three winners of this year’s Morris Weiss Award for Outstanding Holocaust Education. Gathering most of the materials herself, she has put together an incredible Holocaust museum at Congregation Beth David in Saratoga. J Weekly By Rob Gloster As a child, Iris Bendahan was confused when her grandmother would speak of relatives Read More

Sunday, April 23 5:00-6:15pm JCCSF, 3200 California Street San Francisco The Future of Our Past A Conversation about Memory and Testimony with Stephen D. Smith, USC Shoah Foundation, Followed by a Memorial Ceremony This community event is free and open to the public. 4:00 pm: Reading of the Names—On a continuous cycle prior to the Read More

In the beginning of March, William J. Lowenberg Speakers Bureau member Helen Farkas addressed the students at Mt. Eden High School in Hayward, California. Following the program, we received a large stack of letters from the students at Mt. Eden. Helen really made an impression on this large group of young people; each letter was Read More

On Sunday, March 19, 2017, more than 700 students and teachers from the Bay Area and beyond came together for the 15th annual Day of Learning. This week, The J. – The Jewish News of Northern California, featured the event in their publication. “While most high school students wouldn’t choose to spend their weekends inside a classroom, Piedmont High Read More

At the Threshold of Memory: An Exploration of New Modalities in Holocaust Education Please join our friends at Jewish LearningWorks this weekend for an exploration of new modalities in Holocaust education. The program is free of charge and open to all adult community members, but registration is required. Register > Sunday, February 12 2:00 – 5:30pm University Read More

Day of Learning Sunday, March 19 12:30 – 5:00 pm Galileo Academy of Science and Technology San Francisco All Northern California students (grades 7 – 12) and teachers are invited to this annual, free event. Come learn from preeminent educators and Holocaust survivors. At the Day of Learning, gain a deeper understanding about the Holocaust Read More

The JFCS Holocaust Center was honored to have the students from Adele Harrison Middle School in Sonoma join us for the BAY AREA BIG READ! Upon careful reflection after reading The Children of Willesden Lane, the students at Adele Harrison Middle School wrote incredible poems. The following poems are just a few examples of the Read More

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle featured a great story about The Children of Willesden Lane BAY AREA BIG READ and its impact on local students. We are so proud that we were able to bring Lisa Jura’s story to nearly 7,000 students and teachers throughout Northern California. From the article by San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Filipa A. Ioannou: Read More

The response from students and teachers throughout Northern California to The Children of Willesden Lane BAY AREA BIG READ has been incredible! This past week the JFCS Holocaust Center has received over 120 thank you letters from students at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Each heartwarming letter serves as a reminder of the importance of educating youth Read More

We are pleased to announce a new collaboration between the JFCS Holocaust Center and The Contemporary Jewish Museum, inspired by the new exhibition From Generation to Generation. From Generation to Generation examines memory, sometimes personal, but more often collective or historic, through the lens of art. The artists invite us into their worlds, urging us to make Read More