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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/18242/full/18242/jfs-of-silicon-valley-gets-bigger-better-home-in-san-jose/ <br /><br /> <b>JFS of Silicon Valley gets bigger, better home in San Jose</b> <br /> Friday, August 9, 2002 | by <p>JOAN GROSS </p> <br /><br /><p>Jewish Family Service of Silicon Valley has moved to a new home in San Jose where agency officials say ir can better serve hundreds of refugees, seniors and other clients.<br /><br /> "It's much bigger than before," said Limor Danai, marketing director for the program, which previously operated out of the Los Gatos campus that also houses the Addison-Penzak JCC and the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose.<br /><br /> Danai said the new 4,000-square-foot center is more than twice the size of the former offices.<br /><br /> Because of a $14 million construction project planned for the old campus on Oka Road, "we needed to move anyway," Danai said. "We found a new place and a bigger one."<br /><br /> Along with getting a new home, the agency is seeking a new executive director to replace Tim Prince, who left the agency recently after two years. Danai said the JFS board was preparing to search for a replacement.<br /><br /> Started by the local federation in 1967 to help settle Soviet Jewish refugees, the agency now serves 700 clients, including about 500 refugees from the former Soviet Union, Iran, Bosnia and Ethiopia.<br /><br /> JFS offers courses in English as a second language along with career services, computer classes and counseling, according to Danai.<br /><br /> The agency also operates a senior program and hosts the meetings of the 200-member South Bay Holocaust Group.<br /><br /> The new center should be more convenient for JFS clients, according to agency officials, because many of them live in San Jose. The office on South Winchester Boulevard also is close to two bus stops and has on-site parking.<br /><br /> JFS officials say their program has become the fifth largest in the country helping to resettle refugees seeking asylum in the United States. But since immigration policies were tightened following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the office only sees about half the 17 to 18 new refugees it previously served each month, according to Danai.<br /><br /> The center has a paid staff of 17 and a volunteer force of 200, most of whom are Russian emigres.<br /><br /> Rosalie Sogolow, principal of the ESL program, says the agency's curriculum has become a model for similar programs nationwide.<br /><br /> Before the language classes started in 1987, "there was no ESL program geared for the many immigrants from the Soviet Union," she said. "This program gave them the tools and social contact they needed. We grew from 15 to several hundred students."<br /><br /> Michelle Gabriel, a journalist from Saratoga, has been a volunteer instructor in the ESL program one day a week for the last 12 years. "It is so heartwarming to work with people who are so diligent in their studies, showing strong commitment and hope for the future," she said.<br /><br /> Two years ago her husband, Joseph Gabriel, began teaching a citizenship and constitution class. A financial consultant in San Jose, Gabriel uses a syllabus prepared by the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society of New York for the once weekly sessions.<br /><br /> Other members of the agency's volunteer network serve as chaplain aides, conducting services and visiting retirement homes and homebound seniors. They also provide transportation and holiday care packages.<br /><br /> The Holocaust group includes 130 survivors who gather monthly for a writing circle, computer class and social activities. The group also provides a speakers' bureau for schools in the Bay Area.<br /><br /> Alicia Appleman, a San Jose resident who joined the group four years ago, said, "We belong together; it unites us with our past."<br /><br /> Now that the agency has settled in its new home, the JFS hopes to launch two new programs. One is an assisted-living complex for Holocaust survivors. The other program would offer social services to elderly residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. As part of a joint project with Temple Beth El in Aptos and Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel, the venture would provide counseling and other services to a rapidly growing population of seniors.</p> <p> </p>

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