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Supporting the JCH

The Marks JCH opened in 1927 as an anchor for the Brooklyn Jewish community. Since then, we have served more than four million individuals of all ages, religions and nationalities through our social service, health, educational, cultural and recreational programs. Since the mid-1980s, we have helped resettle more than 50,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

A home away from home, the JCH is where visitors meet the love of their life, foster life-long friendships, grow to adulthood, and, for some, obtain life-saving support. We’re a center of Jewish community life, a recreational hub, a social service center and a resettlement house.

The JCH’s programs are funded in part by grants from the City and State of New York, UJA-Federation of New York and groups such as the Robin Hood Foundation, Butler Foundation, and Edith and Carl Marks Family Foundation.

The remainder of our funding comes from the generosity of individuals like you. Help the JCH help others in our community. We welcome gifts of all sizes.

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Why Give?

The JCH has a nearly 90-year track record of providing help for those in need and a warm, caring community that allows our visitors to thrive. Countless programs serving people of all ages and backgrounds are made possible by the generosity of our alumni and friends. Every gift makes a difference. Your gift makes a difference.
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Here are a few examples how past donations changed lives:

Supporting Families:

A single-parent family from the former Soviet Union recently settled in Bensonhurst. With two children, little money and no other means for support, the mother turned to the JCH for help.

First, we focused on the children, assisting in their registration for neighborhood schools. We helped them adjust to a new language, school system and culture. We enrolled them in our After School program. There, we gave them individual attention, providing a bilingual teacher to help them break through the language barrier, enabling them to understand their homework better. Slowly, they began to pick up the language, needing less support in the classroom and while doing homework.

This support also allowed the mother the time to focus on her own transition, taking English lessons at our center and finding work through our job placement program for new immigrants. The entire family has benefited from the programs offered by the JCH, adapting to life in the U.S. in a safe, welcoming and truly nurturing environment.

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Supporting Children:

Vladimir, a very bright boy with an extremely difficult background and a range of behavioral difficulties, came to the Robbins-Corenman After School Center in 1st grade. With a single mother working two jobs to support her family, Vladimir’s struggles with reading were affecting the rest of his studies.

At the JCH, he was given significant individual attention. He was enrolled in our mentoring and a Read-With-a-Kid programs, and our After School director personally checked Vladimir’s homework assignment each day.

We discovered that he was fascinated by our computer classes and was willing to do any amount of additional reading just to earn 15 more minutes in the computer lab. Vladimir not only improved his grades, but he became a computer “specialist” and began helping other children in the class.

Initially, there was a fear that Vladimir would be held back at school due to his poor reading ability. He ended up in the top fifth percentile in his class and became one of the most-accomplished children in our After School program. He has a future as bright as any, made possible by those who funded his development at the JCH.

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Supporting Holocaust Survivors:

The Robert Ivker Nazi Victims Fund raises money to provide cash assistance for Nazi victims and Holocaust Survivors living in our community.

Having experienced the horrors of concentration camps, labor camps, and deportation, these survivors still had the strength to emigrate to the U.S. to seek a better life, and the JCH helps them achieve that.

Many Nazi victims still face language barriers, citizenship issues, severe poverty and social isolation. With help from UJA-Federation of New York and individual donors, we are able to provide services and programs that help Nazi victims both monetarily and socially.

More help is needed. Please take a moment to read some stories from the New York Times’ Neediest Cases campaign and consider donating to the Nazi Victims Fund today:

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Impact of Generosity

Individual donations help the JCH fund a wide variety of programs and initiatives. For example, nearly half our summer camp attendees depend on scholarships for attendance. The support of our generous donors allows nearly 600 families to send their children to camp.

As nearly 90 percent of Russian seniors in New York live at or below the poverty level, another 2,390 individuals can receive the counseling, in-home support and emergency cash assistance that the need to live safe, healthy lives, avoiding nursing homes and other institutional care.

Here are some other examples of how your generosity will help:

  • $5,000 means a single mother can become self-sufficient though social services, English as a Second Language, vocational training and job placement.
  • $3,600 means one child can spend a full summer at the Marks JCH Summer Day Camp.
  • $1,800 means a child with special needs gets year-round socialization and enrichment classes to help them succeed.
  • $1,000 means a homebound Holocaust survivor living on a fixed income gets much needed support.
  • $500 means a first generation American child can take a semester of music classes.
  • $360 means a child from a low-income family gets to go to mini-camp at the “J” when school is not in session.
  • $180 means a job seeker can buy a MetroCard to attend a vocational training program.

Ways to Give

The Annual Fund

The JCH uses its Annual Fund to quickly address emerging needs in the community and fill financial gaps resulting from government cutbacks

Tributes and Memorials

Do you have a family member or friend who holds a special place in your heart? Share the memory of a loved one or celebrate special occasions such as birthdays, weddings and anniversaries by making a donation in his or her honor. It’s an enduring way to show how much you care.

Corporate Matching Gifts

Many employers sponsor matching gift programs, doubling charitable donations made by their employees. See if your company offers such a program and if so take advantage of the opportunity to provide twice as much support to the JCH community.

Naming Opportunities

Walking through the JCH, you’ll see the names of many individuals who have made us a vital part of the community. We recently completed a $10 million renovation, for example, and the names that now grace the building and classrooms echo the legacy of those who built and nurtured this institution. For generations to come, these donors will be celebrated for their great generosity and commitment to charity. Please consider joining those whose legacy endures at the JCH. Choose to tie your name or that of a loved one to a community that helps so many.

Tree of Life & Tile Wall

Become a part of the community’s permanent history by commissioning one or more custom-designed ceramic tiles, displayed in the entry hall of our building.The project was a key component of a landmark capital campaign that successfully raised $10 million to renovate the JCH. With a similar initiative under way for our “Tree of Life” in our lobby, tiles and leaves are available for purchase.

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Other ways to donate:

By telephone, through the mail or by using a regular donation form. Please contact Violetta Shmulenzon at 718-943-6328 to arrange a donation or seek further information about our charity programs. The JCH is a 501(c)(3) organization.

Check may be sent to:
Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst
7802 Bay Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11214

Please make all checks payable to “MARKS JCH, please provide your email address in the check’s memo, thank you!

Donor Privacy Policy

Marks JCH is committed to respecting the privacy of our donors, whether the donation is made online, by mail, or any other method. We seek and record only information that is relevant to our fundraising efforts, and record the information in an accurate, objective and factual manner. We strive to protect the confidentiality of all information concerning donors, and honor and protect donors’ rights to anonymity [to the extent provided by law]. Marks JCH conducts online transactions through a system that employs high-level security technology to protect the donor’s personal information. To the extent any donations are processed through a third-party service provider, our donors’ information will only be used for purposes necessary to process the donation. Marks JCH will not share or sell a donor’s personal information with anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations. This policy applies to all information received by Marks JCH, both online and offline, as well as any electronic, written, or oral communications.