Heart of giving
Continued from Page 7
In 1953, the Jewish Community
Council began operating from a new
Jewish Community Center building, a
project developed by builder Sam Hoff-
man and located at 16th Street and
Camelback Road in Phoenix. This was
already the third location for the Center;
it had previously been located on Central
Avenue after it was on Fourth Street.

The Jewish Community Center, Jew-
ish Family & Children’s Service and the
Kivel Nursing Home became the Coun-
cil’s inaugural constituent agencies.

“In those earlier years, establishment
of these organizations was more organic
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Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
speaks to a UJA fundraising event in
Phoenix in March 1947.

Photo courtesy of the Pearl and Cecil Newmark Memorial Archives
at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society
and more personal than we would likely
see today,” Bell said. “The professional-
ization of these organizations came later.

Initially, this was just people from the
community coming together. They saw a
need and tried to address it.”
In 1962, Jewish Social Service offi-
cially became Jewish Family & Chil-
dren’s Service (JFCS). In 1968, the
Phoenix Jewish Community Council
changed its name to the Phoenix Jewish
Federation. In 1999, the UJA officially
became United Jewish Communities
following the merger of the UJA, Coun-
cil of Jewish Federations and United
Israel Appeal. In 2009, that organiza-
tion was renamed Jewish Federations of
North America. Today, there are 148
individual federation offices across the
U.S. and Canada, including what is now
called the Jewish Federation of Greater
Phoenix. Other Valley nonprofits have their
roots in the federation, such as the Jew-
ish Community Foundation of Greater
Phoenix, which became independent in
2002.