Moving Forward Together

Press Releases

Feb 22 2024

SDRRN Migrant Shelter Services’ resources and infrastructure are currently stretched to capacity. We cannot provide respite shelter and services to all the people seeking asylum that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is releasing. The shelter will continue receiving up to 300 of the most vulnerable asylum seekers released by DHS daily, including people with medical conditions, families, pregnant people, LGBTQI people, older adults, etc., as space allows.

Feb 5 2024

The County of San Diego and Jewish Family Service of San Diego have announced the successful completion of the Recovery Action Fund for Tomorrow (RAFT) grant program – assisting 2,242 low-income families and seniors and distributing $8,968,000 in cash to those in need in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Feb 5 2024

JFS’s economic mobility and opportunity team leads innovative projects designed to alleviate the major stumbling blocks that underserved San Diego County families face, such as housing unaffordability, soaring health care costs and labor wage inequity. The programs provide vital financial investments in families with guaranteed income initiatives and targeted community-driven programming.

Dec 21 2023

JFS, in response to input from the community, is adopting new nutrition wraparound services in 2024 designed to help people move forward in all areas of their lives. A new coaching program will be coming soon to the Corner Market and JFS’s home-delivered meals and congregate dining sites continue for those who need them most, along with emergency food distributions.

Dec 19 2023

National University announced a partnership with Jewish Family Service of San Diego to expand National University’s mobile clinic healthcare services to impact further the health and wellness needs of the San Diego community. The unique on-site mobile clinic, staffed by nurse practitioners and healthcare professionals, provides medical services, prescriptions, and lab work for JFS’s four City of San Diego Safe Parking Program lots, serving individuals living out of their vehicles.

Dec 14 2023

We write with concerns about U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s practices relating to the processing of family groups at the southern border which result in harmful separations.

Dec 14 2023

ACLUF-SDIC, CILP and JFS have filed complaints with DHS about similar concerns in the past. Today’s CRCL complaint focuses on family separations stemming from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s ongoing practice of releasing high volumes of recently processed migrants to transit centers and makeshift nonprofit organization installations throughout San Diego County since mid-September 2023 without providing basic necessities, including food, water, and shelter, medical screening or stabilization, or onward travel coordination. Al Otro Lado has documented 1,081 unique instances of separations among adult family members since mid-September 2023. “We have seen too many cases in which part of a family will be in our care at the San Diego Rapid Response Migrant Shelter Services with no knowledge of where their other family members are. At best, they are somewhere else in the county. There are some instances where people have been detained in other states. The most devastating instances are when a family member has been deported with little hope for reunification,” said Kate Clark, Esq., Senior Director of Immigration Services at JFSSD.

Nov 27 2023

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.

Nov 17 2023

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.

Oct 27 2023

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.

Oct 8 2023

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

Oct 4 2023

Miles4Migrants, Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFSSD), and San Diego Rapid Response Network (SDRRN) have teamed up to provide essential aid to asylum seekers left vulnerable on the streets of San Diego. This collaborative effort aims to facilitate 150 flights per week, offering a lifeline to these individuals and families, reuniting them with their loved ones across the United States.

Sep 28 2023

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.

Sep 19 2023

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.

Aug 14 2023

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.

Jul 28 2023

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.

Jul 11 2023

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.

Jul 7 2023

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.

May 30 2023

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.

May 16 2023

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.

Apr 25 2023

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.

Apr 12 2023

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.

Mar 17 2023

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.

Mar 16 2023

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.

Mar 16 2023

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.