Jewish Family Services history

In 1913 people were having difficult times, so the founders of Houston United Jewish Charities, located in an Office in Levy’s Department Store on Main Street, gathered around a table to start helping Jewish people with funds to pay rent, help find places to live or assistance finding jobs.

In 1915 it incorporated as the United Hebrew Charities in order to give financial assistance to needy Jewish families.

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

By 1922, United Jewish Welfare Associates became the agency’s name, as it moved into offices donated in Houston’s City Hall.

Federated Hebrew Charities expanded to become the central fundraiser for all Jewish organizations locally and regionally in 1923, re-naming itself the Federation of Jewish Social Services.

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

In 1927 the agency changed its name again to the Jewish Social Services Bureau.

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

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

In 1944, the agency started a Jewish child adoption placement service, which would be in place for decades.

In the 1950’s the Jewish Social Services Bureau refocused its efforts on the Jewish community and offered counseling and traditional adoptions.

Yvonne z’l and Ernest Schneider wed in Homewood Terrace’s synagogue in 1951, surrounded by friends they made in the children’s home.

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

In 1970 the agency changed its name to Jewish Family Service of Greater Springfield, Inc. and focused its mission on family cohesion and unity.

Iin 1972, it opens another branch office in Marin County.

The agency launches a volunteer corps in 1973.

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

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

In 1978, the agency establishes a Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement program.

In 1980, JFS was asked by the Jewish Federation to be the lead agency to work with the large number of immigrants coming into the city from Vietnam, Cuba, and especially the former Soviet Union, providing many services including job placement.

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.

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 the agency moved to 15 Lenox St in Springfield and established the Lenox Charitable Fund.

In 1988, the agency implements the fee-for-service program, Help at Home, to provide home care, nursing care, meal delivery, laundry, personal affairs management, and emergency response service to the growing numbers of Bay Area older adults.

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.

In 1990, JFCS opens a Sonoma County branch office.

Project Shalom, an ongoing social support group for adults with ongoing behavioral and mental health conditions began in 1991.

In 1994, JFCS establishes Dream House, a domestic violence prevention and transitional housing program for women and their children.

In 1995 JFS was 80 years old and provided counseling, adoption, resettlement and elder services.

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

In 1999, JFCS’ L’Chaim Center for frail Russian elderly is licensed as an adult day health care facility.

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.

In 2007, the agency launches the Childhood Trauma Training Institute, training mental health professionals in the impact and treatment of trauma in children ages 0 – 5.

In 2009 JFCS receives a donation of the Gary Shupin House – Independent Living Community for developmentally disabled adults, in San Francisco.

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.