Blog

Sixteen-year-old Maya was not attending high school on a regular basis. With her parents separated, the oldest of four became quite isolated and spent many hours online. She had very little contact with people outside of social media.  Maya’s mother contacted JCFS Chicago’s Response for Teens to get help for her daughter. 

Most of us in the Chicagoland Jewish community will gather for a Passover seder in a few weeks. This annual ritual often brings together different generations of family, friends, and sometimes new faces. This diversity can add to the richness of the experience.

At a time when the Israel-Hamas War has been dominating the concerns of much of our community, it presents us with some challenging moments. It behooves us to consider in advance if and how we might address the war at the seder table. Do we avoid discussion of the war altogether? Address it directly? Guide a discussion? Introduce themes of the war into the Passover rituals?

The Response for Teens outreach team took their talents to the Knapp School and Yeshiva recently to lead several workshops on Sexuality Education.

We all have ancestors, even if we don’t know much about them. Our family lineage has a direct impact on our present day lives in ways of which we are not fully cognizant, according to Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone, who recently led Moving Toward a Healing-Centered Care, a JCFS sponsored training for Chicago area clinicians and other professionals.

This year marks Nanci Dobkin’s sixth time as co-chair of Tuned In: The Larry Dobkin Event, the annual fundraiser for JCFS Chicago’s Response for Teens program. Her neighbor and family friend, Barry Rubin, who has served on the Response Advisory Council (RAC) since 2022, joins her as co-chair.

People turn to JVS Career & Employment when they need help with their job search. Oftentimes, after gaining employment, those same people will contact JVS to share a career update.

Administrators of JCFS Chicago’s S.M.A.R.T. Kids abuse prevention program have been receiving positive feedback since implementing the initiative last February.

Every week for over fifteen years, Rabbi David Rosenberg visits one of the adult living homes supported by JCFS Chicago to teach a Jewish Learning class to a small group of residents.

“In our community, Rabbi Rosenberg is a super star,” said Leticia Cardoso, Director of Residential Supports. “His commitment to our department has been invaluable, steady and indispensable.”

In the early 2000s, Sarah was struggling to pay her bills while living in Chicago and attending medical school. Her grueling academic schedule didn’t allow time for a job to help. A classmate, who also was Jewish, told her about a JVS Career & Employment scholarship offered to Jewish students studying in the health field.

When Alex moved from Israel to be closer to family in the Chicago suburbs, he did not have a plan in place for employment.

“My transition to the U.S. was a little stressful,” he admits.