Jewish Community Programs

By Eric Crabtree-Nelson, LCSW, Response for Teens

Violence.  It’s everywhere these days.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that we have a real violence problem here in the Chicago area.  Whether it’s the rampant street violence we hear about or live with every day, or whether it’s bullying behavior towards others that persists despite all of the attention and educational programs that have been put in place, violence is an everyday fact of life in our worlds.

By Dr. Beth Fishman, Manager of Addiction Services at JCFS Chicago

As the old adage goes, “the best defense is a good offense.”  That is no less true when talking about problematic drug use by young people.  So how do we build a strong offense to help the youth in our community resist the pressures and temptations to begin using drugs and alcohol?  For youth drug prevention, what works?

Here are four insights to get you and the burgeoning young adults in your life on the right track. 

Summer is here.  We finally feel the warm sun and look forward to long weekend afternoons at the pool.  It is an excellent time of year to go over the basics of child safety and how to prevent abuse. 

Communicating with your child is a key strategy in preventing abuse. Here are some key messages that you can give your children:

By Dr. Yonit Hoffman, Manager, Holocaust Community Services

Throughout the week, most of our group quickly bonds. It is as if there is an unspoken familiarity, and we somehow find a balance between listening to each other’s stories, sharing our own, and finding and wondering about common experiences and crossed paths. The balancing act is, at least for me, a constant process throughout our visit to Germany. 

By Dr. Yonit Hoffman, Manager, Holocaust Community Services

This is my second time coming to Germany. And, again, I feel an intense ambivalence and strange mixture of anticipation and apprehension. When I came three years ago, I wrote about this same feeling:

“In a million years, I never thought I would be on a plane on my way to Germany.  I grew up with a powerful and clear message; ‘We don’t buy German,’ we write ‘No Krups or Braun’ on our wedding registry, and we certainly don’t go to Germany.  When we have strayed from this edict and bought German, like our now defunct Bosch dishwasher or my grandfather’s used Mercedes ‘lemon,’ we are punished by dishes that don’t get clean and motors that need to be rebuilt. The reason? We are a ‘Survivor Family’ with all that means, all that comes with that identity.  And that also happens to be the exact reason that I am on a plane to Munich right now.

By Dr. Yonit Hoffman, Manager, Holocaust Community Services

I hadn't been to Yad Vashem in more than 25 years. Established in 1953, it is the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust. Here, too, much had changed, and much remained the same. The location is as breathtaking as I remembered it to be: set high on Mt. Herzl, overlooking Jerusalem, with an expansive vista of hazy mountains, clusters of Cyprus trees and the golden city below. There are pristine connecting paths and spaces between the visitors center, the main museum, the museum of holocaust art, the hall of names, the research buildings, the beautiful gardens and memorial sculptures throughout the grounds of this world-renowned memorial center. There are plenty of places to pause, to think, to feel, to attempt to take in the enormity.

By Dr. Yonit Hoffman, Manager, Holocaust Community Services

Judy Kaplan-Weinger and I take the light rail to Har Hatzofim (Mt. Scopus), the main campus of Hebrew University.  This is where – more than 30 years ago, as a University of Michigan undergraduate – I had embarked on my study of social identity in American and Israeli women. In Israel, I had worked under the mentorship of Dr. Amia Lieblich – a professor of oral history who will be the keynote speaker of the conference I'm attending. Once again, I find myself looking back at then, now.

By Dr. Yonit Hoffman, Manager, Holocaust Community Services

I take the bus to Jerusalem on Friday, arriving before Shabbat to meet my friend and co-researcher, Judy Kaplan-Weinger. We meet at the apartment I've rented for our stay in Jerusalem. It’s in a beautiful old building around the corner from the Bezalel Art School and located within walking distance of the city center and beyond it, the Old City. The chamseen (hot desert wind) has passed, and the weather is sunny and clear, with a perfect temperature for strolling and exploring.

By Dr. Yonit Hoffman, Manager, Holocaust Community Services

This is the first blog of “Yonit’s Journey: Light Out of Darkness,” a narrative of Yonit Hoffman’s month-long trip to Israel and Germany to attend Holocaust-related events – some public, some personal. The director of JCFS’s Holocaust Services program and an authority on the psychology of Holocaust survivors, Yonit is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and descendant of Holocaust victims.

“Yonit” is a Hebrew name – literally “dove of peace” – given by Holocaust survivor Gershon Hoffman to his daughter when she was born in Israel.

Yonit, who lost her grandparents and uncle in the Holocaust, grew up to become a Jewish Child & Family Services manager of the Holocaust Community Services program, a joint effort of JCFS Chicago, CJE SeniorLife, and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. It is one of the busiest and most important social service programs in the Jewish community.