A look back at 2025 at JFCS
Happy New Year! As 2025 comes to a close, JFCS is pausing to reflect on the challenges we’ve navigated, the milestones we’ve reached, and the impact we’ve made together over the past year.
Right from the get-go, 2025 was a year of both challenge and hope. In January, we launched a new pillar of service focused on immigrants and refugees. We have been committed to serving these populations since our inception, but with the ever-changing and often restrictive nature of immigrant rights in recent times, we’ve realized that we need to take extra effort to ensure immigrants and refugees have access to the services they deserve. JFCS took this time of challenge and fear as an opportunity to commit ourselves to the goal of assistance and relief.
We’d like to thank people like you for helping us achieve this goal! Our annual MOSAIC awards, which honor immigrants and refugees who have enriched Louisville’s community, helped to raise funds for serving immigrant populations. This awards event was attended in record numbers this past May. We received over $63,500 through our MOSAIC awards from generous community members; it is commendable to see the Louisville community demonstrating such concern for the important issues facing society today.
Themes of simultaneous challenge and hope arose once again at the beginning of November, when SNAP benefits were federally cut for a brief period. Our food pantry services, always a staple of JFCS, became a haven for an even greater number of people than usual. We temporarily loosened location-based and frequency-based restrictions to allow clients access to needed food products during this unusually trying time. In November alone, we gave out over 11,500 lbs. of food! Our assistance amidst SNAP cuts even made national news; JFCS’ Sonny & Janet Meyer Food Pantry was highlighted by National Public Radio (NPR)!
Once again, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without your help. We received almost 9,000 lbs. of food donations from individuals and organizations during November! It would have been impossible to keep up with the demand during this difficult time without your help. The Louisville community has continued to prove itself deeply committed to communal well-being.
We’d be remiss not to acknowledge the bittersweet retirement of Director of Programs Mauri Malka, after over 30 years at JFCS. In honor of her, and the thousands of lives she touched over the years, we unveiled The Mauri Malka Fund for Independent Aging, an endowment fund that helps ensure that older adults can continue living independent, enjoyable lives. We are grateful for the many donations we received towards this fund from our community! Information on how to donate to this endowment is at the bottom of this blog.
We continued in 2025 to strive to honor our community’s commitment to JFCS and those we serve. Among the many things we’ve done to strengthen that commitment, in June, we renewed the Oral History Project interviewing over 20 adults from Louisville’s Jewish community and installed The Frank and Barbara Weisberg Family Fund for Jewish Oral History Display. This wall features photographs and quotes from various the interviews, ensuring that their insights and life experiences inspire generations to come.
We held four successful JFCS Community Chats compiling experts on various subjects to give insight into those issues. Our Seligman Series Night of Humor provided laughs, while our Year of Civil Discourse events gave the Jewish community opportunities to have serious, insightful discussions about pressing global issues.
A year as eventful as 2025 will inevitably be a roller coaster. But despite the challenges and stress we faced, we spent 2025 consistently impressed with the people around us. People like you appreciated us and contributed to our services through both good times and bad ones. Whatever is in store for us in 2026, we know we’ll face it with your help, and we’ll always be grateful for you. Happy New Year, and may we continue to help Louisvillians live with dignity and purpose throughout 2026!
If you’d like to further assist us through these times, we encourage you to make a donation by clicking here; by mail; or by contacting Courtney Evans at (502) 322-1928.