About Us
Mission
Inspired by enduring Jewish values, the mission of Jewish Family & Children's Services of the East Bay is to promote and strengthen the social and emotional well-being of diverse individuals and families throughout the entire East Bay community.
History
Jewish Family & Children's Services of the East Bay has been responding to the evolving needs of our community for more than 130 years. In 1877, JFCS/East Bay was founded as the Daughters of Israel Relief Society, a volunteer organization focused on the Jewish aged, widowed, and orphaned. After the 1906 earthquake, the Daughters of Israel cared for and resettled the huge influx of homeless people that moved across the bay from San Francisco. During the next several decades the agency developed support programs to help members of the community through difficult life transitions or times of personal crisis. In the mid-1920s, the first professional social worker came on staff.
JFCS/East Bay became involved in resettlement efforts in 1934, as the first German Jewish refugees arrived in the East Bay. After World War II, those efforts intensified as thousands of Jewish refugees came to the United States. Our resettlement expertise was put to use again in the 1980s as large numbers of Russian Jews fled anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union.
Services
Today, JFCS/East Bay offers skilled guidance and support to anyone in need in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. We operate more than twenty-five programs within these five principal areas:
