News Archive: December 2008

December 21, 2008: Mary Pender Greene Honored by Major Advocacy Group

At the 13th Annual Leadership Awards Reception, the Human Services Council (HSC) presented awards to three individuals for their significant and sustained contribution to the human services sector. Mary Pender Greene, JBFCS Assistant Executive Director was recognized for the critical role she has played in bringing the community together to address organizational racism. Mary shared the honors with Eric Brettschneider, Special Adviser to the Commissioner, NY State Office of Children and Family Services and Steven Newman, Chief Operating Officer, Public Health Solutions.

L-R: Elwanda Young, Senior VP and Chief Operating Officer, United Way of NYC; Mary Pender Greene; Paul Levine, JBFCS CEO and Michael Stoller, HSC Executive Director. Photo: ©Ben Asen

December 10, 2008: 21st Annual Bikur Cholim Conference on Visiting the Sick.

The recent 21st Annual Conference on Visiting the Sick, co-sponsored by the JBFCS Rabbi Isaac N. Trainin Bikur Cholim Coordinating Council (BCCC) and UJA-Federation of New York, featured BCCC’s new resource, Good Company: Facts and Fictions of Bikur Cholim (Visiting the Sick), a comic book that uses humor to teach bikur cholim to teens and adults. The keynote speaker, Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, explored insights into bikur cholim with personal stories from his time spent as Rabbi in Tokyo.

Rabbi Marvin Tokayer	Barbara Trainin Blank

More than 215 people from the tri-state area and beyond attended morning and afternoon workshops, including new sessions such as Self-Care for Coordinators, Caring for the Caregiver, and Filling in the Gaps: Visiting with Seniors. Also, we once again showed the Bikur Cholim documentary, Turn to Me. This showing, however, was different in that a principal in the film led a discussion with workshop participants.

The conference also paid tribute to founder Rabbi Isaac Trainin, who died last January at the age of 88, with special remarks by Barbara Trainin Blank, Rabbi Trainin’s daughter. Tribute booklets documenting his visionary leadership were distributed.

See more information about bikur cholim or order the comic book.

December 8, 2008: Pinchas Berger Honored for 38 Years of Service!

On Monday, December 8th, we honored the service of our colleague, Pinchas Berger, LCSW, the JBFCS’ Director of Jewish Community Services. We marked his impending retirement with a celebration at the JCC in Manhattan. Friends and colleagues from both JBFCS and the community attended this event as people paid tribute to his extraordinary career. Pinchas’ career is distinct not just in terms of his 38 years of service, but because of the remarkable contributions he has made.

Board President John Hermann presents an agency gift to Pinchas Berger	CEO Paul Levine and Pinchas Berger

Beginning as a social work student placed at Jewish Family Service, one of JBFCS’ predecessor agencies, Pinchas returned to co-lead Project Y.E.S. (Youth Emergency Services), a teen outreach and drop-in center program. He then transferred to the Quick Response Unit at the JFS North Brooklyn Office and, after several years, moved on to begin the agency’s program in Starrett City. Following the creation of JBFCS via the merger of JFS & JBG, Pinchas began working his way up the leadership structure of the Madeleine Borg Community Counseling Services, ultimately becoming the Regional Director for Brooklyn & Staten Island.

His special combination of clinical abilities, leadership skills and capacity to relate to just about every segment of the Jewish community led to his promotion to Director of Special Projects. And for the past decade, Pinchas has held the position of JBFCS’ Director of Jewish Community Services.

Among the many highlights of Pinchas’ career are: his mentoring and development of dozens of young social workers who now play leading roles in Jewish communal service; the creation of a highly effective training and credentialing program for émigrés from the Former Soviet Union; major contributions to vital JBFCS and Jewish communal programs in such areas as HIV/AIDS services, the Brooklyn Youth Council, Homelessness Prevention, the National Center for Jewish Healing, the Shira Ruskay Center/Healing and Hospice Alliance, and Partners in Caring.

Beyond these specific contributions, perhaps Pinchas’ greatest gift has been the tremendous warmth, empathy, honesty and straightforwardness, dedication to good service, humor and zest for life that he has brought to every position he has held. These qualities have made him beloved by colleagues and staff at program after program. He will be greatly missed.

Fortunately, Pinchas will continue his involvement with JBFCS and Jewish communal services as JBFCS’ consultant on our vital partnership with UJA-Federation and on our services to New York’s Orthodox communities.

Yashar Koach, Pinchas! May you be strengthened, as you have strengthened us!

December 8, 2008: JBFCS Harry Blumenfeld Counseling Center/Pelham featured in The New York Times Neediest Cases Campaign

In On the Boardwalk, Wheels Are Her Wings The New York Times Neediest Cases Campaign reports how the Madeleine Borg Community Services' Harry Blumenfeld Counseling Center/Pelham helps Elsa Tirado in the Bronx.

December 3, 2008: JBFCS Bikur Cholim comic guidebook, Good Company, featured in Jewish Press.