Ed Hajim’s life did not get off to an auspicious start. Born into the Depression, kidnapped by his father at age three and told (falsely) that his mother was dead, Hajim lived in more than 15 foster homes and residential facilities before he reached age 18. When...
I’ve always loved literature and theater, in part because I see value in viewing things through the lens of character and story. In college I majored in English and spent a summer writing a screenplay about Romani Gypsy fortune tellers. My process involved conducting...
In the summer of 2022, Craig Goldwasser and Andrew Chan reached out to JCCA. The longtime friends had launched their eponymous law firm a few months before, committing to giving 10% of their firm's earnings to charitable causes in the community. Less than a year...
During and after the Second World War, JCCA helped European Jews as they settled in the United States. Children were placed through our Foster Home Bureau and some adult refugees found work as clinicians and cottage parents on our Westchester Campus. When Herta Weiss...
Tema Bomback is a full-time mother of her four children and volunteers at their schools. She is also a volunteer at a cottage on JCCA’s Pleasantville Cottage Campus, where she helps young boys who are developmentally delayed. Mark, her husband, is a screenwriter for...
I am a retired social worker whose roots are on the Lower East Side. In the late 19th century, my grandmother, Anne, and three of her four siblings were placed in an orphanage. My father had died and his death left their mother widowed, destitute and with five young...
For 13 years, Jay and Terri Bialsky have been deeply devoted to the children JCCA serves. They and their two daughters, Gabrielle and Dannielle, have been active volunteers on the Pleasantville Campus—helping at the fundraising event “A Tree Grows in Pleasantville,”...