Jewish Child & Family Services history

1912 Four hundred and eighty children leave HSGS on 150th Street in Manhattan for the Pleasantville Cottage School — the first cottage-style institution in the United States.

1917 Twenty-four Manhattan and Bronx agencies, including HOA, HSGS, and the Home for Hebrew Infants, form the Federation for Support of Jewish Philanthropies.

1919 The HOA establishes two summer camps, “Wakitan” for boys, “Wehaha” for girls.

1920 HOA is one of the charter members and founding agencies of the Child Welfare League of America.

The Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum moves to a new campus on Ocean Avenue in 1921 and is renamed Homewood Terrace.

1922 Jewish Children’s Clearing Bureau is founded to aid placement in 10 Manhattan Jewish agencies.

1925 Operated by the HOA, a 123-acre site in the Edenwald section of the Bronx becomes a home for 15 developmentally disabled teenage girls.

In 1926 United Jewish Charities formed and affiliation with the Greater Hartford Community Chest , a relationship that still continues today with the United Way.

Soon, younger girls are added, and in 1929, a separate school for boys is built on the grounds.

In 1931, the Eureka Benevolent Society moves to a newly built office complex on Scott Street in San Francisco.

Jewish Family & Children’s Service was founded in 1935 by a group of courageous Jewish women looking to help people of the community during the Great Depression.

1940 After decades of discussion, the merger of Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, Fellowship House and the Jewish Children’s Clearing Bureau is negotiated by Doctor Maurice Hexter.

In 1942, it will merge with JCCA and close its institution.

In 1943, JFSA establishes its first social enterprise, Utility Workshop, a job-creation program for refugees and elderly immigrants.

1946 JCCA responds to the needs of young survivors of World War II, helping 430 young people restart their lives in the United States.

1947 Recognizing the need for help in re-entering society, JCCA founds two halfway houses — Friendly Home for Girls and Fellowship House for Boys for young people discharged from JCCA institutions.

By 1950, HIAS Immigration & Citizenship was providing a wide range of professional services to immigrants at all stages of the lengthy and complex immigration process.

1953 JCCA establishes the first of its agency-owned foster homes in Midwood, Brooklyn.

A cross between a group residence and a foster home, a second home in Midwood is purchased in 1956.

1960 Jewish Youth Services of Brooklyn merges with JCCA.

1962 Hartman Homecrest, an Orthodox children’s agency, merges with JCCA, adding significantly to its number of group homes.

1965 Through passage of state legislation, a Union Free School is created to serve the young people at PCS and later Edenwald.

In 1966, JFSA opens its first branch office on the Peninsula.

1967 In response to a child care crisis in the city, JCCA opens its placement divisions to children of all faiths.

1968 Youth Residence Center, an innovative, coed, therapeutic residential treatment program for 40 older adolescents, ages 16 to 21, is built on Manhattan’s East Side.

1971 Vernondale Group Residence is founded for eight orthopedically handicapped young people who do not need hospital care but cannot return home.

1972 Pleasantville Diagnostic Center is founded to provide intensive diagnostic evaluations for boys.

1973 A six-million-dollar Building Fund Campaign begins to modernize Pleasantville Cottage School and construct a new Edenwald on the same campus.

In 1974, its Child Guidance Program expands to include child therapy, consultation to teachers, and group counseling for parents.

1975 Edenwald relocates to the Pleasantville Campus where it houses 96 young people with both emotional and cognitive difficulties.

In 1977, Homewood Terrace and JFSA merge to become JFCS.

In 1978, amid funding cuts and facing increasingly more complex social problems, a new organization was born and a new day had arrived in the world of social services.

1980 Kingsbrook Residence in Brooklyn joins Mt.

In 1981 JFS first received national accreditation from the Council on Accreditation for Family and Children’s Service Agencies.

In June 1982, the agency opens one of the first family resource centers in the nation, Parents Place, and purchases its first property, a Victorian building on California Street in San Francisco, to house it.

1983 New group day care center opens in Forest Hills that eventually serves hundreds of children, many from immigrant families.

1984 Brooklyn Child and Adolescent Guidance Center is founded, the first new outpatient mental health clinic funded by the state in 10 years.

In 1985, JFCS opens Adoption Connection, a fully licensed, nonprofit adoption agency, which handles open, infant adoptions and matches birth mothers with adoptive parents.

Also in 1986, the second wave of refuges from the Soviet Union to the United States begins.

In 1987, JFCS collaborates with Jewish Family Services of Los Angeles to introduce the Personal Affairs Management Bill in the state legislature to provide funding for multi-service centers to offer services to the frail elderly.

1988 New York’s Mayor Koch salutes Pleasantville Cottage School on its 75th Anniversary, saying “we needed you and you were there.”

In 1989, JFCS acts as a first responder to the October 17 Loma Prieta earthquake, providing emergency loans, grant assistance, temporary housing, relocation services, crisis counseling, consultation to schools and day care centers, on-site mental health services, and community workshops.

1990 JCCA receives Child Welfare League of America Award for its outstanding contributions to the field of child welfare.

1991 The JCCA Research Department is established to focus on practice-oriented studies.

1993 JCCA and the Ackerman Institute develop the Kinship Project to link expertise of a family therapy institute with kinship foster care.

1994 Brooklyn Families First helps families who are recently relocated or who have been homeless; the Therapeutic Foster Boarding Home Program offers specialized care to 24 troubled children who have the potential to remain within a family unit in the community.

1997 Agency restructuring results in new Foster Home Services, Community-Based Residential Services, and Campus-Based Residential Services.

In 1998, JFCS’ émigré department expands its youth development program in collaboration with Parents Place.

1999 JCCA receives a contract from New York City for 335 foster home beds in the Bronx.

In 2000, the Miriam Schultz Grunfeld Building—JFCS’ central administrative office—and the Rhoda Goldman Plaza, an assisted living center with 157 apartments and a dementia-care floor, both open.

In 2001, JFCS purchases a Scott Street building for Parents Place and a building in San Rafael for its Marin County branch office.

The Anja Rosenberg Kosher Food Pantry which was started in 2002

In 2004, JFS became licensed by the Department of Children and Families to provide specialized services to children and teens.

In 2006 JFS moved from Bishops Corner to the space it now occupies on the Zachs Campus in the Community Services Building.

2007 JCCA celebrates 185 years of service to children and families and presents inaugural Tikkun Olam award to philanthropist Howard N. Blitman.

2008 JCCA opens Brooklyn Democracy Academy, a transfer school in partnership with the Department of Education.

2009 JCCA opens the Kew Gardens Hills Youth Center, a new prevention and interventive afterschool program for Orthodox Jewish male teens who live and attend schools and yeshivas in this neighborhood of Central Queens.

2010 JCCA purchases a new, larger, permanent home for the Bukharian Teen Lounge, an afterschool program for Bukharian youth in the Queens community.

2011 JCCA opens a brand new building that headquarters our Brooklyn programs: Mental Health and Prevention Services, Foster Home Services, and Bridges to Health.

2012 JCCA opens ARCHES Juvenile Justice Program in Brownsville.

JCCA acheived Hague Accreditation through the Council on Accreditation (COA) as authorized by the United States Department of State, for a five year period, ending February 28, 2013.

In 2014 the JFCS Holocaust Center, in partnership with Lehrhaus Judaica, publishes The Diary of Rywka Lipszyc, a newly discovered diary of a Polish teenager.

2015 Judge Ronald E. Richter is named CEO of JCCA effective May 18.

2017 JCCA is featured in the PBS Docuseries Treasures of New York, which highlights JCCA’s impact as a founding member of UJA-Federation of New York.

2019 JCCA hosts the second CSEC conference, Layered Vulnerabilities: CSEC Policy, Practice, and Prevention for Multiple-Risk Populations.