Jewish Family Services (JFS) is launching its end-of-year appeal for donations.
JFS continues to provide help for those facing food insecurity, mental health issues and aging challenges.
Donations can be made online at jfskc.org/ways-to-give or by mailing a check to JFS (5801 W. 115th St, Suite 103, Overland Park, KS 66211).
The following is a story from JFS about the effects of its services:
Talking with Marianna is like traveling back in time. Her words paint pictures as she describes fleeing from the terror of her native Odessa and becoming a refugee in a land where she didn’t speak the language or understand the culture. While others may tell their story as a tragedy, Marianna shares hers with joy, laughter, and so much love, that after an hour with her, you feel like you’re a part of her family.
“My mother lived through so much – two world wars, famine, losing her husband – but she always worked to see the good in people,” Marianna said. “She taught me that you always have to have hope.”
When Marianna and her husband, mother and son first arrived in Kansas City in 1974, they were immediately put in touch with Jewish Family Services (JFS). Marianna worked with a translator who helped her connect to community resources, other Russian-speaking Jewish families, and eventually a job with JFS as what she called a “bridge” between the community and new immigrants.
“Jewish Family Services was the center of the Jewish community,” she said. “It was Jewish vocational and education, and that’s what made this community. Because it connected new families and old families and all aspects of our life.”
Even after she left her JFS position to teach high school orchestra, Marianna remained a part of the agency’s family. When her husband became ill, JFS was there for her.
“I didn’t feel very good. My husband was so fragile that he needed to be on dialysis three times a week. I thought ‘I physically cannot survive,’” Marianna said.
JFS was there to help provide food and meals for them during the holidays.
“Not only did they bring a meal, but when I said that he cannot have salt, that he cannot have this or that, JFS accommodated every single need,” she said. “I didn’t need to cook. I could just sit with him. That was such a gift… JFS social workers are angels. They have patience. They have their ears and their hearts open.”
Marianna is one of the 50 Holocaust survivors in the Greater Kansas City area served by JFS. Through JFS’ older adult care management and programs like JET Express volunteer driver program, JFS helps survivors maintain their independence with transportation, access to health care and prescriptions, and mental health and counseling services.
“We’re very lucky that we get to connect people to meaningful resources and that they let us journey alongside them,” said Laura Gilman, JFS director of social work. “Our survivors are an aging population, and we feel really grateful to be able to do the work to support them aging in place and aging in their community.”
JFS supports more than 10,000 locals each year. Because of community generosity, Marianna and thousands of others can receive fresh and nutritious food from JFS’ KesherKC food pantries, have a social worker help navigate the challenges of everyday life, and find compassion from a spiritual care or counseling visit in times of crisis and grief.