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: February 2nd, Read More

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

November 6-7, 2022, San Francisco—This weekend, the newly formed California Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education will gather at The Clancy, Autograph Collection for its November Symposium, led by the Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) Holocaust Center in San Francisco. The California Collaborative—established with support from a $1.9 Million grant from the Marin County Office of Education and the State of California—is a first-of-its-kind statewide network that connects educators, genocide survivors, and community leaders in Holocaust and genocide education.

At this moment we bear the weight of history. Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the members of his Governor’s Council for Holocaust and Genocide Education, which includes top experts, legislators, and leaders of our State. The Council is co-chaired by JFCS’ Executive Director, Dr. Anita Friedman, and is designed to expand education about antisemitism and bigotry to every Read More

Last week, the California Assembly and Senate released their joint budget agreement, a critical step in the State’s annual budget approval process. It includes two of our Jewish community’s most important priorities—Holocaust and genocide education and caring for vulnerable survivors. Anita Friedman, JFCS’ Executive Director, says, “The voice of California’s Jewish Community has been heard. Read More

Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center has established the California Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education, with support from a $1.9 Million grant from the Marin County Office of Education and the State of California. The California Collaborative, a first-of-its-kind statewide network, will connect educators, genocide survivors, and community leaders in order to support Read More

During the pandemic, the JFCS Holocaust Center never waned from its mission to remember, research, document, and educate about the Holocaust. In fact, it has increased accessibility and access to students, educators, and the community through adapting its offerings. From pivoting the William J. Lowenberg Speakers Bureau into virtual settings to addressing the increase in Read More

In an unprecedented public-private partnership, the JFCS Holocaust Center will be partnering with the State of California to respond to rising acts of antisemitism and hate. By combining private donations with public money, the JFCS Holocaust Center will lead an important initiative to expand Holocaust and genocide education across our state. Over recent months, JFCS Read More

Our community is inspired by the more than 1,000 students, educators, and parents from all over the Bay Area who took the time to attend a Confronting Antisemitism workshop this past academic year. Attendees grappled with the term “antisemitism” and its profound impact throughout history and in everyday life.  Students and their parents gathered together Read More

Two years ago, Henry was a student in the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Manovill Fellowship Program. Today, Henry is a student at a university in Menton, France. When he arrived at his French university, Henry was shocked by the acts of antisemitism he witnessed around him and the lack of Holocaust education opportunities for students. He reached Read More

  Register to join Taube Philanthropies on April 6th > Register to join on April 6th >

Thursday, February 4th 5:00 – 6:30pm (PST)   Lori E. Frugoli, District Attorney, Marin County​ Morgan Blum Schneider, Director, JFCS Holocaust Center​ Susan Leider, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Kol Shofar​ Seth Brysk, Regional Director, ADL Patrice O’Neill, Not in Our Town Noah Griffin, Local resident, historian, leader for changing the name of the Dixie School District Representatives Read More

In the midst of the pandemic, Dr. Carl Grunfeld, member of the JFCS Board of Directors, reached out the JFCS Holocaust Center to donate an important piece of his family history. The passport belonged to Otto Schwarz, Carl’s uncle, who was born in Viersen, Germany in 1904. When Kristallnacht unfolded, Otto raced home and jumped over a wall Read More

The JFCS Holocaust Center hosted its first ever Spanish workshop this summer. Claudia Leiva, adjunct faculty at Santa Rosa Junior College, attended the first session of our virtual Summer Book Club, spearheaded by Leslie White. Leon Leyson’s The Boy on the Wooden Box, the focus of that first session, resonated with Claudia, who wanted to Read More

How Holocaust Education at the JFCS Holocaust Center is Empowering the Next Generation As the movement against racism and injustice builds in our country and around the world, the JFCS Holocaust Center continues our commitment to fighting discrimination, hatred, and antisemitism. Watch this video, featuring our Manovill Fellows, to see how the next generation is Read More

Jewish Family and Children’s Services has issued the following statement in coalition with the San Francisco Interfaith Council and our network of interfaith organizations   As leaders of diverse faith-based traditions we understand human life to be the greatest and most sacred gift endowed by our Creator. Inherent in that gift is the inalienable right Read More

  Students (grades 7-12) and educators are invited to our 18th Annual Day of Learning at Galileo High School on March 8, 2020! More than 700 students (grades 7-12) and educators from public and private schools throughout California will choose from 18 different workshops and hear survivor testimony from the Holocaust or genocide.  The Day of Read More

Join us on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2020     George Elbaum was 1 year old living in Warsaw when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. His family lived in what became the Warsaw Ghetto, in cramped quarters and on starvation rations for three years. Of his family of 12, only George and his mother survived. Read More

A Violins of Hope San Francisco Bay Area Event in San Mateo   Join Dr. Yedida Kanfer, Director of Community Education at the JFCS Holocaust Center, and Rabbi Daniel Stein of Congregation B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day for a discussion of music in the Holocaust, folk tradition, Read More

Music as a Medium for Teaching the Holocaust – Fall Workshops for Educators   Register for the Oakland workshop on November 13th   This workshop is presented by Facing History and Ourselves and Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center in partnership with Violins of Hope and Music at Kohl Mansion. How is history shaped by Read More

A Survival Kit for 21st Century Jews   Monday, September 23, 2019 at 7PM (3200 California Street, SF, CA 94118) An Unorthodox Live Podcast Recording with Bari Weiss & Andrew Marantz “Since its debut in 2015, Tablet magazine’s Unorthodox has become one of the most popular and beloved Jewish podcasts in the world. Join hosts Stephanie Butnick, Liel Leibovitz Read More

Each year at the JFCS Holocaust Center, students from colleges and universities throughout the Bay Area apply for the Pell and Manovill University Fellowships.  University Fellows mentor and teach high school students, conduct research, develop curriculum, work with primary source materials in the Tauber Holocaust Library and Archives, and gain first-hand experience learning from Holocaust 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

Music of Remembrance Presents: The Parting Thursday, May 23, 2019 | 7:30 p.m. Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall San Francisco Conservatory of Music The Parting, a daring new opera by composer Tom Cipullo and librettist David Mason, explores the life and art of Miklós Radnóti, widely considered one of the most important poetic witnesses to Read More

Morgan Blum Schneider, Director of the JFCS Holocaust Center, will be participating in a panel discussion on antisemitism with Seth Brysk (Anti-Defamation League) and David Schraub (UC Berkeley).  The discussion will be moderated by Sue Fishkoff of J. The Jewish News of Northern California. Register here! Monday, May 13th, 2019: 6:00 – 8:00PM Goethe-Institut San Read More

Join our Associate Director, Dr. Alexis Herr, for a panel discussion with other scholars on the impact of collective and historic trauma on targeted communities.  This event is being put on in partnership with the multimedia exhibit, Then They Came For Me: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During WWII and the Demise of Civil Liberties, at Futures Read More

17th Annual Day of Learning Sunday, March 17, 2019 Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, San Francisco 12:30 – 5:00pm Register Today! > Download a flyer (PDF) here   Join us for the JFCS Holocaust Center’s Day of Learning, in San Francisco, on Sunday March 17, 2019! At the Day of Learning, students (grades 7-12) Read More

In this presentation, Professor Gross will examine the relationship between what Polish teens learn in school about the Holocaust and what they have absorbed from their cultural milieu. She will discuss how the research she conducted in Poland relates to contemporary thinking about history education and collective memory. While focusing primarily on the teaching of Read More

Teaching Holocaust history has the potential to inspire and empower students in the present. Led in partnership with the JFCS Holocaust Center and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, this session examines individual stories of rescue and resistance as a means of highlighting personal agency and moral choice. Using a curated selection of testimony, archival, and media 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

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

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