last word
JFCS HONORS LONGTIME BOARD MEMBER
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
A nna Zuritsky Boni joined the
Jewish Family and Children’s
Service in 2009 after an invi-
tation from a friend.

Boni became part of a “giving circle,”
or a group of couples who give $1,800
each toward the nonprofit’s mission
of helping families and individuals in
need. The money was for a “bridge
grant,” meaning it helped a person with
a specific financial difficulty, such as
paying a couple of months of rent or for
a medical procedure.

The Bryn Mawr resident found the
mission to be “a very lovely kind of
thing,” so she decided to adopt it as
her own.

Boni grew from giving circle donor
to JFCS board member to board chair.

And after more than a decade of help-
ing to lead the nonprofit, she was hon-
ored by it on May 10 at a Parkway
parking lot on Chestnut Street. (Boni’s
family owns the Parkway Corp., which
owns that lot as well as other commer-
cial parking areas.)
JFCS held a celebratory dinner for its
immediate past board chair. According
to a news release, Boni helped make
Philadelphia “a more vibrant city”
through her service. More than 200
guests attended.

“It’s very humbling,” Boni said.

The Bryn Mawr resident was asked
to join JFCS’ board in 2010, just a
year after she joined the giving cir-
cle. Eventually, organization leaders
selected Boni to lead them; she became
board chair in September 2019.

“Anna is a remarkable leader,” said
Paula Goldstein, JFCS’ president and
CEO. “She really takes her world seri-
ously; she has learned to familiarize
herself with every aspect of JFCS.”
That familiarity helped during what
became a difficult period for both the
organization and Boni herself. The new
board chair’s mother died in February
2020, and then the pandemic broke out.

Once it did, Boni had to transition
32 MAY 12, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
the nonprofit’s activities to the digital
space. But she completed the pivot suc-
cessfully and kept JFCS going, accord-
ing to Goldstein.

She even figured out a way to keep
JFCS operating in person.

Before the pandemic, the nonprofit
had two vans that it used to trans-
port clients to Bala Cynwyd for social
events, grocery shopping and other
activities. In 2020, though, the organi-
zation started using the vans to set up
food and clothing pop-ups in neigh-
borhoods, community centers and
churches. “We were bringing services to the
community in need rather than having
the communities travel to one of our
offices,” Boni said.

JFCS roots its mission in the Jewish
values of kehillah, or creating commu-
nity, b’tzelem elohim, or valuing the
inherent dignity of each individual,
and tikkun olam, or healing the world.

By adapting on the fly, Boni was
doing her best to uphold that mission.

She succeeded because she believed in
those values, according to Goldstein.

“She really buys into the mission
of the organization in a very, very big
way,” she said.

During her time as board chair, Boni
expanded JFCS’ mission. Her tenure
included the crafting of a new strategic
plan for the nonprofit and, through
that effort, she helped the organization
clarify a new priority.

JFCS would always be a Jewish orga-
nization serving Jews, but it also would
strive to become an organization that
serves non-Jews.

Boni described the nonprofit’s long-
term goal as taking programs that are
“restricted to Jewish clients” and dupli-
cating them for non-Jewish residents.

The immediate past board chair started
working on that initiative during her
term when she made the decision to
diversify JFCS’ board. The organiza-
tion is in the process of bringing on
two new board members from outside
of the Jewish community.

“We serve in the Philadelphia com-
munity; we have programs for Jews and
non-Jews,” Boni said. “For us to main-
tain our relevance, we have to increase
our awareness of our programs in the
Jewish and non-Jewish communities.”
At the same time, a key pillar of
the new strategic plan was reaffirming
those Jewish values, according to the
past chair. But it’s those very principles
that require the organization to serve
everybody, not just Jews, she explained.

“How can you repair the world if
you’re limiting it to Jewish people?”
Boni said.

The celebration of Boni’s tenure will
start the organization on its expanded
mission. She raised $900,000 for the
benefit. It will go toward JFCS’ unre-
stricted fund, meaning it can be used
for anything from the nonprofit’s
Holocaust survivor programs to its fer-
tility fund.

Boni’s work with JFCS is going to
continue on the nominating and gov-
ernance committee — the one that
selects new board members.

“Putting the plan into action,” she
said. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Photo by Tina Markoe
Anna Zuritsky Boni