For one-and-a-half centuries, Jewish Family Service of Colorado has responded to human needs with compassion
Pivot: a word that gained new meaning during 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic. Businesses “pivoted,” changing the way they did business, or offered different services or commodities in response to the needs created by lockdowns and the virus itself. Business and organizations that “pivoted” were lauded for their adaptability and creativity.
Jewish Family Service of Colorado has been pivoting for 150 years, from 1872 when Frances Wisebart Jacobs and Delphine Cohen founded the Hebrew Benevolent Society to meet the needs of Denver’s 300 pioneer Jews — through the agency’s evolving branding identities as the Jewish Relief Society, the Jewish Central Aid Society, the Jewish Family and Children’s Service, to Jewish Family Service — to today, as the Jewish Family Service of Colorado meets the needs thousands of Jews and non-Jews facing challenges.
Pivotal challenges — including financial hardships, food insecurity, mental or physically illness, disabilities and starting life in a new land as a refugee.
As new world challenges have arisen across parts of three centuries, JFS has pivoted, adding new services and deemphasizing others. When the Hebrew Benevolent Society began in 1872, life expectancy was considerably shorter than it is now, meaning that many widows and orphans needed financial and practical assistance.
When economic recessions and the Great Depression have hit, JFS was there to provide financial relief to struggling families and senior citizens. Decades later, the response to economic hardship took the form of JFS’ assumption of the Kosher Pantry (now the Weinberg Food Pantry) from its founders, Jerry and Bobby Carr and Ralph and Carolyn Auerbach. Another pivot: These days, JFS’ Lunchbox Express program provides free lunches for children when school is out.
After the Holocaust, JFS pivoted to the settlement of the many Holocaust survivors who found their way to Denver. When Jews in were persecuted in places like the former Soviet Union, and as others fled strife-ridden countries around the world — Vietnam and Afghanistan, for example — JFS was there to help them find new homes in Colorado, to teach them English and explain life in America.
This response to the needs of refugees was manifest in the Utility Workshop, which provided sheltered employment for refugees not yet able to compete in the labor market. The workshop must have done a good job, for look at how many refugees became very successful after having to start over.
JFS pivoted as the Utility Workshop evolved into SHALOM Denver, a venerable program that, for decades, provided jobs, training and supportive services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
These days, JFS serves people with disabilities by finding them employment at select worksites. For decades, JFS maintained a group home for developmentally disabled adults, providing them a safe, loving place to live once they left their childhood homes. Some residents lived their entire adult lives there.
JFS has long assisted seniors in the way of volunteer visits, transportation and financial aid, and now that baby boomers are joining the ranks of seniors, JFS is responding to this population groundswell, to help people in the final chapters of their lives.
COVID-19 exacerbated the already growing incidence of anxiety, depression, stress, isolation and other mental health challenges. JFS provides mental health counseling on a sliding-scale basis.
When disaster strikes — the Marshall Fire comes to mind — JFS pivots once again and steps in to distribute funds raised by JEWISHcolorado and other agencies to help affected families and individuals with cash, gift cards, computers . . . whatever is needed.
Jewish Family Service of Colorado is still going strong at 150 due to the excellent professional and voluntary leadership that has steered it through 15 decades. Their titles have evolved with the changing times, but the management, fundraising and visionary skills of Frances Wisebart Jacobs, Harry M. Harris, Alfred M. Neumann, Jerry Grossfeld, Art Weidman, Sue Russell, Yana Vishnitsky, Shepard Nevel, Debra Zimmerman and now Linda Foster — along with earlier leaders whose names are lost to history — have deftly steered JFS to serve as the face of the Jewish community through world challenges.
The same is true of the lay leadership who, throughout the decades, wisely hired the dedicated professionals.
Then there are the countless volunteers who visit seniors, shop for groceries, adopt new immigrant families and prepare apartments for them, deliver lunchboxes to needy children, sort, pack and distribute food in the Food Pantry, serve senior lunches at the JCC, serve as parachaplains and be buddies with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities — and the complete real mitzvah list at JFS is longer still.
Pivot? Actually, it is not quite accurate. When something pivots, it changes direction. Jewish Family Service has always gone in the same direction, steadfastly assisting those in need, adding and editing services along with the changing times. If ever there were an organization that embodies the Jewish concept of mitzvah, it is Jewish Family Service of Colorado.
JFS does the Colorado Jewish community proud. We trust we’ll see you again in 2072, on your next milestone, your 200th anniversary!
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News
