JFS History

For over 150 years, JFS has provided the MetroWest community with mental health and social services. From its establishment in the mid-nineteenth century as an orphanage to the present day, JFS MetroWest has stayed true to its mission to help those in need.

JFS started as the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society and served as our community’s first organized response to widows and orphans, the poor, and the needy of Greater Newark. The society evolved into the Jewish Counseling and Service Agency, and is today called the Jewish Family Service of MetroWest New Jersey. We have resettled Holocaust survivors, supported the poor, assisted with adoptions, helped older adults to remain independent in their own homes, educated the community about domestic abuse, administered the Hebrew Free Loan fund, counseled adults, families, children and teens, supported local synagogues and sister Jewish communal agencies, and so much more.