News

There are, as we like to say, many ways to be Jewish, do Jewish, and feel Jewish. Hillel has provided diverse Jewish experiences to college students around the world since 1923, and much has happened in that century. Enjoy these glimpses of programming and priorities at five Hillels around the Bay Area.

The celebration highlighted Jewish thought and dialogue and featured an intimate conversation between Dr. Anita Friedman, President of the Koret Foundation and Executive Director of Jewish Family & Children’s Services, and Rabbi Dr. Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute.

This week, the JCRC announced the results of the first-ever Survey of Bay Area Jewish Identity. JCRC will use the data to reframe public understanding of Jewish identity in the Bay Area, transforming its work moving forward by centering the diversity and complexity of the Bay Area Jewish community.

The launch marked the release of several updates that deepen the search capabilities of the Visual History Archive (VHA) and its 55,000+ testimonies. The Visual History Archive is the world’s largest collection of primary source video testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides.

Koret President and Jewish Family and Children’s Services executive director Dr. Anita Friedman was presented with the Light Unto the Nations Award at AJC’s 2022 Global Advocacy Gala. The award is AJC’s highest honor bestowed on world leaders who exhibit leadership, courage, and principle.

“The U.S. and the Holocaust,” coming to PBS September 18, examines the reasons behind the country’s inadequate response to Germany’s persecution of Jews.

Two Bay Area cohorts went on trips in May, with more couples going later this summer. “As an interfaith couple, this trip was important to us to learn more about what it means to be Jewish and what traditions we want to carry forward or establish with our future family,” said Tara and Alexander, a Bay Area couple who recently returned from their trip.

Jewish Story Partners, a Los Angeles-based non-profit film funding organization, announced its third round of grantees today, with $468,000 in new grants distributed among 16 projects. The films traverse a rich variety of Jewish experiences, among them powerful stories from award-winning filmmakers like Michel Franco, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, Julia Mintz, Pierre Sauvage, Jason Osder, William Youmans, and Joshua Zeman.

“The Children of Willesden Lane” is a true story. It begins in Vienna in 1938, when it quickly becomes dangerous to be Jewish. The heroine of the story is a young girl named Lisa Jura, who dreams of becoming a concert pianist. Her family is Jewish, and her parents are able to secure her a […]

Prior to the official opening of The Girl in the Diary Exhibit – Search for Rywka from the Lodz Ghetto at the Karpeles Manuscript Library in Buffalo on Jan. 27, 2022, Jakub Nowakowski, director of the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, answered a few questions for the Am-Pol Eagle. Read the full interview below:

The Jewish Journal published a spotlight of The Willesden Project, Koret’s global initiative with USC Shoah Foundation and Hold On To Your Music. Read the full article to learn more about Koret’s Holocaust education work.

Jewish Story Partners (JSP), the rapidly growing, Los Angeles-based non-profit film funding organization, announced its second round of grantees today. This new slate brings JSP’s 2021 granting total to $500,000, distributed among 27 projects. JSP supports the highest caliber independent films that use fresh, nuanced perspectives to tell stories about the diverse spectrum of Jewish experiences, cultures, and encounters.