Strengthening Lives in Times of Need...

Since 1943, Jewish Family Service has played a vital role in responding to the constantly changing challenges and stresses of everyday life experienced by individuals and families in Greater Cincinnati.

Our professional and experienced staff can strengthen your life in times of need - at every age and stage. 

Call us today for a better tomorrow. 513-469-1188.

We invite you to attend a Strategic Planning Community Conversation to ensure JFS addresses the community's highest priorities and most urgent human service needs. We value your ideas and unique perspectives on how we can continue to strengthen the community!

Strategic Planning Community Conversation dates:

Meetings are held 7-8:30 pm at the Mayerson JCC

Donations to support the 21st Annual Dr. Samuel S. Rockwern Passover Delivery Project are greatly needed as well as volunteers to deliver boxes filled with Passover food on Sunday, April 7, 2019, to the homes of vulnerable families throughout Greater Cincinnati – many of them older adults on fixed incomes.

Learn more       Donate        Volunteer

Remke Markets, at their Hyde Park location, is accepting cash donations for Dr. Samuel S. Rockwern Passover Delivery of Jewish Family Service. Displays with tear-off slips in denominations of $5, $10, and $20 are available March 11 - April 21 in the kosher food department and at check-out counters. Just present the slip to the cashier who will add the donation to your purchase.

Jewish Family Service is now providing personal caregiving services through the acquisition of Cedar Village Home Care. Renamed “StarPoint Home Care,” caregivers are available 24/7 to help older adults with daily living activities, so they feel comfortable, secure, and independent while remaining in familiar surroundings.

Read the full announcement

During a recent group activity at our Barbash Family Vital Support Center, a few individuals living with mental health and or physical health conditions openly shared their challenges, finding support and understanding within the group. Here are two pictures from "Share a Word" that reflect each artist’s reflection about their growth into adulthood, having overcome childhood adversities. Our Vital Support team acknowledges each participant in taking an active role in sharing their story. When we discuss our vulnerabilities, we break down the stigma, showing our abilities.

Center for Holocaust Survivors

 Tables decorated with dreidels and festive centerpieces; live piano entertainment; lighting the Hanukkah; and a lunch buffet filled with delicious food (including latkes and kugel of course!), welcomed a filled room of Holocaust survivors at Adath Israel. This was one of our Center for Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Club activities.  See more photos. 

Barbash Family
Vital Support Center

Participants at our Barbash Family Vital Support Center shared memories of holiday celebrations and laughter when they sat down together with volunteers to enjoy a traditional Hanukkah meal.

Cincinnati Hebrew Day School

A 4-foot high "Canorah"! Thank you to the students at Cincinnati Hebrew Day School for creating a menorah made of cans of food to "light up the community." The cans were later donated to our Heldman Family Food Pantry. The children gathered around as Fran Gafvert read a Jewish version of Stone Soup called "Bone Button Broth" that shows the value of coming together as a community to help each other.

Why David Harris is a mentor with Bigs & Littles:

"Sitting around the table, a handful of students and their mentors are transformed into a family at JFS bigs and littles mentoring program. Later, we’ll do an activity on what “trust” means, or learn about setting goals, and then we’ll play a game of dodgeball or Uno. But, for me, dinner with the students is the time that feels the most precious and where the most learning and opportunities for connection can occur. Together, we talk about our day, or about the news and discuss issues and questions that arise… Or we debate the merits of the latest video game their obsessed with.  And in these conversations, when they’re guard is down while food is distracting them, are innumerable moments that are modeling and shaping a future."

Bonnie Rupe partnered with Jewish Family Service Center for Holocaust Survivors to create beautifully written "books" recording their personal stories and family photos.

Read them here

After working with Holocaust survivors at Jewish Family Service, Sven Iding, a 21-year-old volunteer from Germany, is now able to better understand what it is the survivors experienced.

Learn more

Is using an iPad easy for you?

Volunteer with our Tablets and Technology: Alleviating Isolation in Holocaust Survivors project and teach survivors how to use an iPad to help them stay connected to family, friends, and the world.

Russian speakers are especially needed.  Learn more.

Read more about the Tablets and Technology: Alleviating Isolation in Holocaust Survivors project in this spotlight article by The HealthPath Foundation of Ohio.

Jewish Family Service is excited to lead AgeWell Cincinnati, a central solution that helps links those 60 and better – along with their family members, friends, and caregivers - to community resources for aging well in Jewish Cincinnati.

This new program, AgeWell Cincinnati, was created by the Cincinnati Jewish Senior Service Coalition. Whether you or a loved one are looking for a thought-provoking class, a ride to the grocery store or medical appointment, a new home, or ways to live independently, you’ve come to the right place. Learn more about AgeWell Cincinnati

social-emotional skills necessary to succeed in school and life.  

Learn more.

Managing Senior Adult needs requires more than hiring home care services.
Jewish Family Service has an experienced team of aging life care managers, Your Experts in Aging, to oversee the full range of demands and responsibilities associated with aging.

Learn more.

Want to get rid of an old car?  Donate it to Jewish Family Service Cincinnati! Donating your car, truck, motorcycle or other vehicle is easy - even if it won't start! All you need is a clear title and we'll do the rest, including free pick-up. Once it is sold, we'll send you a tax receipt and the sale proceeds will go directly to helping those most in need in our community.

Learn more.

We asked clients and volunteers to write personal notes explaining how Jewish Family Service strengthened their lives.

Below is a sampling of the heartfelt messages we received:

We all strive to leave the world a better place – through our children, our good deeds, our generosity. 

Thank you to our supporters, such as Mona and Dick Kerstine, who have created a Jewish legacy for Jewish Family Service so future generations will say of us, "The world is a better place because, for a brief time, they lived in it."

Learn more.