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

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 >

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

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

Personal Projects The Next Chapter enables high school youth to develop profound connections with Holocaust survivors. By participating in the program, students build a special community of social responsibility and genocide awareness. Through the Next Chapter program, students learn how to: Meet with Holocaust survivors and pass on their stories Study the history of the Holocaust and Read More

Reflections on the University Fellowship Each year at the JFCS Holocaust Center, students from colleges and universities throughout the Bay Area apply for the University Fellowship. As part of this program, two students benefit from a nine-month intensive study of the Holocaust that includes mentoring and teaching high school students, developing curriculum, working with primary 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

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 conferencia2018@mdh.org.gt   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

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