Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) has promoted Shreya Sasaki to Vice President of Programs and Services. This newly created position will play a critical role in shaping and advancing the JFS mission, ensuring continued program excellence, and driving additional innovation to address evolving community needs. Shreya was formerly JFS Senior Director of Family and Community Services, Gina Mittal has been promoted to this position. Gina will oversee a breadth of JFS initiatives, including refugee resettlement, positive parenting education and other JFS programs that strengthen families.

Each day, JFS lives out our value of repairing the world, to support people from all backgrounds and to bring compassion and humanity to every moment.

Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) welcomes Little Amal to the San Diego borderlands Nov. 3-5. A 12-foot-tall puppet of a 10-year-old refugee girl named Little Amal, this cross-border interactive art experience is spreading the critical story of hope throughout the U.S. and Mexico.

We join Jewish communities around the world in standing in solidarity with the people of Israel.

We urge all levels of government to continue funding the critical resources needed to sustain operations and to welcome and assist all people seeking asylum arriving in the San Diego border region. And importantly, following the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors’ resolution passed on Sept. 26, we urge the County to take action and use its own funds and seek other funding sources to fulfill this urgent need.

Together as members of the Antisemitism Roundtable and as leaders in San Diego’s Jewish Community, we thank the San Diego City Council, which unanimously condemned the vile antisemitic, racist and homophobic statements made in public comment throughout last night’s City Council meeting. This vitriol has no place in our public discourse, and we appreciate the Council’s rejection of the remarks and their determination to reduce opportunities for any form of hate speech in the future.

DACA Day will be held on Saturday, Sept. 9 at the JFS Joan & Irwin Jacobs Campus in Kearny Mesa (8804 Balboa Avenue) from 9:00am to 1:00pm Space is limited with pre-event registration required via jfssd.org/dacaday; registration ends August 31.

We strongly condemn the antisemitic comments made by a commissioner at the San Diego County Leon Williams Human Rights Commission (HRC) meeting on July 18.

The San Diego Seniors Community Foundation (SDSCF) has awarded the JFS College Avenue Center $10,000 as part of SDSCF’s Empower San Diego Senior Center grant program. The 2023 Empower Grant allows JFS to expand program offerings at College Avenue Center by compensating instructors, in addition to volunteer-led classes.

At Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS)’s 2023 Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon, held June 27 at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Jacobs Hall, the nonprofit announced its next board chair, Deborah Bucksbaum, along with new board members, while honoring key staff for their contributions in the past year.

San Diego Foundation and Dr. Seuss Foundation announced today $1.15 million in grants to support 23 local nonprofit organizations dedicated to providing quality, affordable early childhood education, care and resources for families with young children, ages 0 to 5.

In 2019, Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS), in partnership with the County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services, re-launched Breaking Down Barriers, an outreach program promoting positive discussions about mental health and wellness in under-resourced communities, often reluctant to have those discussions. In the past four years, Breaking Down Barriers has conducted or been a part of over 1,000 workshops/events and has reached over 17,000 people.

180 organizations, medical professionals, and individuals sign a letter to Acting Commissioner Miller demanding CBP strictly limit the detention of pregnant, postpartum, and nursing people, and their infants.

Time and time again, the Biden Administration continues to violate its campaign promises to establish compassionate, human-centered immigration reform, now with the planned revival of two Trump-era policies previously known as Prompt Asylum Claim Review and the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process (PACR/HARP). The fact that the Administration ended these policies upon taking office, only to reinstate them less than two years later, is inexcusable and horrific.

JFS Chief Operating Officer Dana Toppel has been named a recipient of the 6th Annual Debra Zanders-Willis Child Welfare Leadership Award from the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency. This award is given to a community partner or County employee who has shown exceptional leadership resulting in positive outcomes for children and families.

On Wednesday, a federal court largely denied the Biden administration’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit, Immigrant Defenders Law Center et al. v. Mayorkas, brought on behalf of people seeking asylum who were stranded outside the United States as a result of the Trump administration’s unlawful “Remain in Mexico” policy. In its decision, the court declared that, if true, the Plaintiffs’ allegations would amount to “acute and sweeping violations” of their “bedrock rights.” The court also granted the Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, meaning they will be permitted to represent a larger class of similarly-situated individuals who had their cases terminated or received final removal orders under the original incarnation of the policy during the Trump administration.

Este miércoles, un tribunal federal denegó en gran parte la moción del gobierno del Presidente Biden para descartar la demanda en el caso Immigrant Defenders Law Center et al. v. Mayorkas, presentada en nombre de personas que buscan asilo y que quedaron varadas fuera de los Estados Unidos como resultado de la política ilegal de la administración Trump de “Permanece en México.” En su fallo, el tribunal declaró que, de ser comprobadas, las alegaciones de los Demandantes constituirían “violaciones agudas y generalizadas” de los “derechos fundamentales” de los Demandantes.

The Biden Administration’s consideration to reinstate family detentions — a practice it openly rejected throughout the campaign trail — is an abhorrent betrayal of its commitments to rebuild our nation’s broken immigration system and implement compassionate, humane policies.

Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) announced today the addition of Dave Myers as its director of safety and security. Myers brings his extensive history in law enforcement to the role, where he will oversee security for all JFS programs and services.

The San Diego Rapid Response Network’s blueprint for humanitarian reception of people seeking asylum at its respite shelter network serves as a road map for how governments and communities across the U.S. can build upon the experiences and lessons learned from the model in San Diego.

San Diego Rapid Response Network (SDRRN), a coalition of human rights and service organizations, attorneys, and community leaders dedicated to aiding immigrants and their families in the San Diego border region, applauds the San Diego County Board of Supervisors for voting today to plan for and support people seeking asylum.

Due to the extreme weather conditions impacting outbound travel, our resources and current infrastructure are stretched to capacity each night. At this time, we are currently welcoming up to 300 asylum seekers daily. When conditions prevent guests from departing, we have to limit arrivals only to the most vulnerable asylum seekers released by DHS.

Due to the extreme weather conditions impacting outbound travel, our resources and the current infrastructure have been stretched to capacity. At this time, we cannot respond to requests coming through the SDRRN emergency hotline to assist in sheltering additional asylum seekers.

JFS has named Sunni Robertson director of volunteer engagement. With more than 17 years serving the San Diego community in the nonprofit sector, Robertson’s experience will guide JFS’s outreach to potential volunteers of all ages and backgrounds to help the nonprofit in providing resources and support to over 70,000 people every year.

In a letter to Commissioner Magnus, The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, ACLU of Texas, Jewish Family Service of San Diego, and the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law, along with 83 advocacy organizations and 51 medical professionals, urge CBP to uphold the reproductive rights of migrants and not detain pregnant, postpartum, and nursing people, as well as infants, past time strictly necessary.
“All people deserve safe and adequate reproductive health care that upholds their dignity and autonomy, including those seeking their legal right to asylum in the U.S.” – Kate Clark, Esq., JFS Senior Director of Immigration Services.