In 1877, the agency was founded with the name the Daughters of Israel Relief Society. We were a volunteer organization caring for the Jewish aged, widowed, and orphaned, distributing food and clothing to the needy and finding homes for transients.

After the 1906 earthquake, the Daughters of Israel was active in caring for and resettling the huge influx of newly homeless people that moved across the bay from San Francisco. The next several decades also saw the agency developing support programs to provide for the emotional needs of the community. In the mid-1920s, the first professional social worker came on staff.

In 1934, JFCS/East Bay became involved in resettlement efforts as the first German Jewish refugees began arriving in the East Bay. After World War II, that work was put into the forefront as thousands of Jewish refugees came to the United States. In the 1980s, our resettlement expertise was again put to use as large numbers of Russian Jewish refugees fled anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union.

Today, JFCS/East Bay offers skilled guidance and support to anyone in need in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. We operate more than twenty-five programs within these five principal program areas:

• Center for Older Adult Services (COAS), assisting hundreds of seniors each year to live independently and safely in their own homes, and working intensively with family members to assess needs, make thoughtful plans, and generally prevent crises that too often come with aging. COAS also includes our Holocaust Survivor Services program, providing mental health services, emergency financial assistance, restitution application assistance, and other services to 250 survivors throughout the East Bay.
• Parenting & Youth Services, with a particular expertise in working with children from birth to five years old, along with their parents, teachers, and caregivers. Our comprehensive early childhood mental health and preschool consultation program provides multiple levels of service to twenty-one Alameda County preschools and more than 1,300 children per year. We also provide direct mental health treatment in clients' homes, focusing on children at risk for child abuse or neglect.
• Counseling Services, offering sliding-scale psychotherapy services in our Berkeley and Walnut Creek offices to adults facing the full range of life challenges. We offer targeted programs for people with disabilities, people dealing with loss and bereavement, and people in financial crisis.
• Refugee & Immigrant Services, offering a wide range of social and mental health services to Russian, Afghan, Bosnian, Iranian, and Latino immigrant communities, primarily in central and eastern Contra Costa County. We offer targeted programs for older adults and their caregivers, for family support and child abuse prevention, and for assisting new Americans to access the health care system. We also bring communities and generations together for lively cultural events.
• Volunteer Services, matching and training 100 active volunteers to work with our clients throughout the East Bay. Volunteer roles include: visiting the elderly to provide companionship and help with shopping and other tasks; English language and life skills tutoring to refugees and immigrants of all ages; delivering kosher holiday meals to isolated older adults and people with disabilities.