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

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

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

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

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

The JFCS Holocaust Center’s Next Chapter program was recently featured in The Mercury News! Read the article > 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 and are awarded 40 hours of community service. Read More