Counseling & Mental Health · May 22, 2025
“I felt unanchored and lost. It became too much to carry my own laundry,” said Frances [a pseudonym to protect privacy], remembering.
It was an awful time in her life: first, her husband had passed after a long illness, with Frances nursing him for the final two years. Then she had left her Indianapolis home and moved to Cincinnati to live with her son, since he wanted to help her—however within a month of her arrival, her son was diagnosed with terminal cancer....
Older Adult Services · May 20, 2025
Jewish Family Service (JFS) is on a roll. After recently becoming the only program in Ohio to win a grant from the national Alzheimer’s Foundation for its new Adult Day Services, JFS just won another honor. On March 20, its K’vod Connect program won the Tristate Association for Professionals in Aging’s Outstanding Project in the Field of Aging Award.
Food & Financial Assistance · April 24, 2025
Over 40 volunteers, including Gabrielle and Eddie Rivin (pictured), collected, packed, and delivered Passover food, including meals and items needed for the ritual seder, to those who needed them.
Giving & Volunteering · October 21, 2024
Update: Len Mitzman z"l, passed December 17, 2024, two months after this article was published. May his memory be a blessing. Ken Germain is not yet retired, but he recently realized he wanted to devote more time to the Jewish community. World events also played a role. “When war broke out in Israel after the October 7, 2023 massacre, I felt a strong need to do even more for the Jewish People,” Ken said. “My wife, who had a more traditional Jewish background than I did...."
September 26, 2024
As we approach the anniversary of October 7, a group from Jewish Family Service’s Center for Holocaust Survivors wrote a letter to students who might be experiencing antisemitism in their own lives. With permission, we are sharing their letter with our Jewish community. Although it is addressed to students, we believe it conveys a universal message of courage, fortitude, and positivity.
Holocaust Survivors · August 23, 2024
“I learned about the Shoah [the Holocaust] at a very young age. I can't even remember the first time I heard about it,” said 19-year-old Neele Ehlers, who grew up in Cottbus, Germany—a town about 12 miles from the eastern border with Poland. “The Shoah is so ingrained in our education, but it's something that’s very heavy and hard to deal with—especially when I think about how the people that did this were my ancestors.”
August 15, 2024
JFS has been awarded $147,206 from the Alzheimer’s Association Center for Dementia Respite Innovation (CDRI) to enhance the quality and availability of dementia-specific respite care for people living with dementia and their caregivers in Cincinnati.
Giving & Volunteering · July 15, 2024
There are at least three subjects that stir an appreciable passion in Leah and Gary Smith. The first is mental health. The second is giving back to the community. And the third is Jewish Family Service of Cincinnati (JFS). So it was only fitting when the Smiths chose to make a significant donation to JFS—providing them with naming rights for the agency’s counseling center waiting room. This waiting room serves a full spectrum of JFS’s mental health clients, from youth and teens to older adults.
Counseling & Mental Health · June 28, 2024
From the moment Jewish Family Service of Cincinnati (JFS) opened Adult Day Services in November 2023, Manager Becky Borello knew that she could inspire the program’s participants—all of whom face cognitive challenges—through the creative process of making art. “From the beginning, it has been our intention to have an art exhibition,” Borello said. “An art project provides an important benefit to our participants. It lets them exercise choice: choice in colors, in style, in design."
Food & Financial Assistance · May 06, 2024
On Sunday, April 14, a community-wide effort to make Passover possible for all who wished to celebrate kicked into high gear. Starting at 9:00 a.m., more than 50 volunteers arrived at Jewish Family Service Heldman Family Food Pantry to package, bag up, and transport Passover food to fellow community members. Five hours later, the 26th annual Dr. Samuel S. Rockwern Passover Delivery Project of Jewish Family Service (JFS) was another resounding success.