JFCS celebrating the people who care and the lives they touch
The youngest Jewish Holocaust survivors are now in their early 80s. As the number of survivors grows smaller, the opportunity to hear their stories, honor their lives, and support their needs becomes more urgent. Meeting that responsibility takes a caring community and committed leaders who help turn compassion into lasting support.
On Sunday, November 8, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Northern New Jersey (JFCS) will bring that community together for Celebration 2026, honoring Sari Gross and Paula Shaiman, two volunteer leaders whose decades of service have helped shape and sustain the agency’s work. The evening will celebrate their longstanding dedication to helping others while honoring JFCS’s Holocaust survivor clients.
The honorees support an organization that helps individuals and families navigate life’s challenges through mental health counseling, older adult support, food assistance, and help meeting basic needs. JFCS serves more than 400 Holocaust survivors with essential services, including more than 283,000 hours of home care over the past year. Programs such as Café Europa complement that practical care with friendship and connection, helping survivors feel supported by a community that values their lives and stories.
For Gross, giving back began with lessons learned around her family’s kitchen table in Kew Gardens. Conversations about Judaism and community activism were part of her upbringing. Her grandfather’s message was especially lasting: she had a responsibility to make the world a better place.
She carried that lesson with her when she moved to New Jersey and founded Flames of Giving in 1995. Among her first calls was one to JFCS, asking whether clients and Holocaust survivors needed Chanukah gifts. According to her honoree biography, Flames of Giving has provided 42,000 gifts to JFCS and more than 60 nonprofit organizations serving people in need.
Gross joined the JFCS board in 2003 and has served in numerous leadership roles, including vice president. Beyond the agency, she is the founding chair of the Volunteer Center of Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey and has held leadership positions with the federation, Temple Beth Tikvah, and ORT America.
Shaiman’s connection to JFCS grew from her family’s experience. After her son Geoffrey was diagnosed with special needs, her friend Carol Newman introduced her to Jewish Family Services in the mid-1990s. She saw how the organization helped families face difficult circumstances through a Jewish tradition of compassion.
She joined the JFS of North Jersey board in 1998 and served as president from 2009 to 2012. Following the 2017 merger with JFS of Bergen County, she served on the consolidated JFCS board, focusing on access to services throughout the agency’s service area.
As JFCS treasurer when the pandemic began in 2020, Shaiman helped the organization adapt so vital services could continue. Her three sons often volunteered alongside her. Although she and her husband, Lee, moved to Scotch Plains in 2025 to be closer to their grandson, their connection to JFCS remains strong.
Celebration 2026 will feature a video on JFCS survivor clients and their stories, including participation in Café Europa, JFCS’s luncheon program for survivors that offers a space for memories and warm, supportive friendships among people who understand a history few others have lived.
Those connections offer companionship while helping preserve a legacy that must never be forgotten.
Funds raised through Celebration 2026 support JFCS’s work with Holocaust survivors and others in need. That work includes counseling, older adult support, food assistance, and help meeting basic needs.
Rooted in Jewish tradition and values, JFCS provides professional, compassionate services to people of all religious backgrounds. Celebration invites the community to honor lives, recognize service, and help carry that commitment forward.
For information and to RSVP, go to jfcsnnj.org/rsvp.
— Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Northern NJ