Jewish Board Of Family And Children's Services
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The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (the Jewish Board) is one of the United States' largest
nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...
and
social service Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administ ...
agencies, and
New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
's largest social services nonprofit. Its services are
non-sectarian Nonsectarian institutions are Secularity, secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian i ...
, and nearly half of its clients are not Jewish. It has over 3,300 employees and 2,200 volunteers serving over 43,000 New Yorkers annually at its community-based programs, residential facilities, and day-treatment centers in each of the five boroughs of New York City as well as in
Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
and Long Island. Its programs include
early childhood Early childhood is a stage in human development following infancy and preceding middle childhood. It generally includes toddlerhood and some time afterward. Play age is an unspecific designation approximately within the scope of early childhood. ...
and learning, children and adolescent services, mental health outpatient clinics for teenagers, people living with
developmental disabilities Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...
, adults living with mental illness, domestic violence and preventive services, housing, Jewish community services, counseling, volunteering, and professional and leadership development. The Jewish Board was created through the successive mergers of New York-area Jewish charitable organizations. The present-day Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services resulted in 1978 from a further merger with the Jewish Board of Guardians, which itself had been founded in 1907.


History


Mergers and acquisition

The Jewish Board was created through the successive mergers of New York-area Jewish charitable organizations. The United Hebrew Charities was established in 1845 as an umbrella organization for the Hebrew Benevolent Fuel Association, the Ladies Benevolent Society of the Congregation of the Gates of Prayer (organized by
Temple Shaaray Tefila Temple Shaaray Tefila ( – ''Gates of Prayer'') is a traditionally oriented Reform synagogue located at 250 East 79th Street (at the corner of 2nd Avenue) on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, New York City. The synagogue was founded in 184 ...
), the Hebrew Relief Society (formed by
Congregation Shearith Israel The Congregation Shearith Israel (Hebrew: קהילת שארית ישראל ''Kehilat She'arit Yisra'el'' "Congregation Remnant of Israel") – often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – is the oldest Jewish congregation in the Unit ...
), the Yorkville Ladies Benevolent Society, and the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Society (organized in 1822).https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1877/02/04/80365158.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/01/27/102445585.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 In 1884 it took over the work of Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society.Lawrence J. Epstein, ''At the Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York's Lower East Side, 1880-1920'' (2007), John Wiley & Sons, . p. 40. Quote: "HEAS ... ceased functioning in 1884. The work of HEAS was taken over by United Hebrew Charities..." In 1926 it changed its name to the Jewish Social Services Association. It merged in 1946 with the Jewish Family Welfare Society of Brooklyn to form Jewish Family Services (JFS). The present-day Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services (the Jewish Board) resulted in 1978 from a further merger with the Jewish Board of Guardians, which itself had been founded in 1907 by Alice Davis Menken (who was known for her social work, particularly with regard to female Jewish immigrant juvenile delinquency). In 2015, with the urging of New York State and New York City, the Jewish Board acquired $75 million worth of
behavioral health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health ...
program service obligations, and 9,000 clients, from the Federation Employment & Guidance Service (FEGS) social services agency, which declared bankruptcy.Guide to the Jewish Family Service collection, 1875–1940; I-375
Center for Jewish History. Retrieved October 21, 2014.


United Hebrew Charities

United Hebrew Charities was formed in 1874 in New York City to organize relief and charitable work for the many
social service Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. They may be provided by individuals, private and independent organisations, or administ ...
organizations across the city, serving New York’s Jewish community and acting as a central relief organization for Jewish charities in the area. Educator, philanthropist, and rabbi
Samuel Myer Isaacs Samuel Myer Isaacs (January 4, 1804 - May 19, 1878) was a Dutch-born American educator, philanthropist and rabbi. He was the second Jewish spiritual leader in the United States to teach in English instead of Hebrew or German. Early life and educ ...
was one of its founders, as was his son, lawyer and judge Myer S. Isaacs. At the time, movements towards overseeing charitable organizations were widespread in New York City.
Josephine Shaw Lowell Josephine Shaw Lowell (December 16, 1843 – October 12, 1905) was a Progressive Reform leader in the United States in the Nineteenth century. She is best known for creating the New York Consumers League in 1890. Seth Low's biographer descri ...
, part of the State Board of Charities of New York, crafted a report that later formed the
Charity Organization Society The Charity Organisation Societies were founded in England in 1869 following the ' Goschen Minute' that sought to severely restrict outdoor relief distributed by the Poor Law Guardians. In the early 1870s a handful of local societies were formed w ...
of the City of New York, the first attempt at bringing together charitable efforts through a singular board’s supervision. In 1877 it had offices at 13 St. Mark's Place in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, and in addition to financial aid and loans without interest, supplied coal, clothing, bedding, sewing machines, materials, medical and surgical care, medicine, aid for pregnant women, aid for orphans, educational expenses, and aid in finding employment to needy Jews. In the early 1880s, among the most famous volunteers of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society (whose work was taken over by United Hebrew Charities in 1884), was poet
Emma Lazarus Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgist causes. She is remembered for writing the sonnet " The New Colossus", which was inspire ...
, best known for her 1883 sonnet "
The New Colossus "The New Colossus" is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887). She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''). In 1903, the poem was cast ...
" ("Give me your tired, your poor ..."), now inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.Watts, Emily Stipes. ''The Poetry of American Women from 1632 to 1945''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977: 123. . Citation for "The New Colossus". In the 1890s, it received large charitable contributions from brothers, and department store co-owners,
Isidor Straus Isidor Straus (February 6, 1845 – April 15, 1912) was a Bavarian-born American Jewish businessman, politician and co-owner of Macy's department store with his brother Nathan. He also served for just over a year as a member of the United State ...
and
Nathan Straus Nathan Straus (January 31, 1848 – January 11, 1931) was an American merchant and philanthropist who co-owned two of New York City's biggest department stores, R. H. Macy & Company and Abraham & Straus. He is a founding father and namesake f ...
. In 1895, its headquarters were at 128 Second Avenue in Manhattan. Banker and businessman
Solomon Loeb Solomon Loeb (June 29, 1828 – December 12, 1903) was a German-born American banker and businessman. He was a merchant in textiles and later a banker with Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Biography His father, a devout Jew, had been a small corn- and wine ...
donated the Hebrew Charities Building, built in 1899, that stood at 356 Second Avenue on the corner of East 21st Street in Manhattan in New York City, and was the headquarters of United Hebrew Charities. In the early 1900s, lawyer and New York Supreme Court judge
Mitchell L. Erlanger Mitchell Louis Erlanger (February 15, 1857 – August 30, 1940) was a Jewish-American lawyer and judge from New York. Life Erlanger was born on February 15, 1857, in Buffalo, New York, the son of Leopold Erlanger and Rachel Lobenthal. Erlanger ...
was a member of the board of the United Hebrew Charities, lawyer and philanthropist Joseph L. Buttenwieser also served on the board, and lawyer and New York Supreme Court judge
Nathan Bijur Nathan Bijur (June 1, 1862 – July 8, 1930) was a Jewish-American lawyer and judge from New York. Life Bijur was born on June 1, 1862, in New York City, New York, the son of Asher Bijur and Pauline Sondheim. His father was a Prussian immigrant w ...
was its vice president. From 1904-05, rabbi, social worker, and philanthropist Solomon Lowenstein headed it. The Jewish Prisoners Aid Society had begun in 1893 as a group of volunteer concerned citizens interested in providing
chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...
s to
state prison This is a list of U.S. state prisons (2010) (not including federal prisons or county jails in the United States or prisons in U.S. territories): * Alabama * Alaska * Arizona * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Connecticut * Delaware ...
s and in aiding needy families of Jewish prisoners around the New York City area in order to support religiously appropriate treatment for all Jewish people incarcerated at state and city levels and their families.''Annual Report of the Jewish Protectory and Aid Society''
/ref> By 1902, it became The New York Jewish Protectory and Aid Society to address an increase in Jewish juvenile delinquency and incarceration. United Hebrew Charities merged with the New York Jewish Protectory and Aid Society in 1907. Lawyer, artist, humanitarian, and writer
James N. Rosenberg James N. Rosenberg (1874–1970) was an American lawyer, artist, humanitarian, and writer. In law, he is remembered for his handling of the collapsed business empire of the so-called "Swedish Match King," Ivar Kreuger. In art, he is remembered ...
served on the board of the United Hebrew Charities for a decade, beginning in 1909, and in 1924 was elected vice president of the Hebrew Charities' Desertion Bureau, an organization founded in 1905 that helped Jewish immigrant women whose husbands had deserted them. After moving to New York City in 1922, civic leader and philanthropist Barbara Ochs Adler was a member of the executive committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians. In 1926, United Hebrew Charities merged with the Jewish Social Service Association (JSSA), taking their name because of the stigma associated with the term “charity,” and to better represent the organization’s focus on social work.


Later years

From 1934 to 1936, teacher
Samuel Slavson Samuel Richard Slavson (December 25, 1890 - August 5, 1981) was an American engineer, journalist and teacher, who began to engage in group analysis in 1919. He is considered one of the pioneers of group psychotherapy for his contributions to its r ...
, one of the pioneers of
group psychotherapy Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, ...
, worked at the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York, a care center for girls and boys with
developmental disabilities Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...
. Also in the 1930s, physician and politician Käte Frankenthal worked with Jewish Family Service. When
Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...
and orphan
Ruth Westheimer Karola Ruth Westheimer ( Siegel; born June 4, 1928), better known as Dr. Ruth, is a German-American sex therapist, talk show host, author, professor, Holocaust survivor, and former Haganah sniper. Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish fam ...
(later known as Dr. Ruth) arrived in New York City in 1956, at 26 years of age a single mother with a newborn daughter, Jewish Family Service paid for her daughter to stay with a foster family during the day, and then when her daughter was three years old for her to stay at a German Jewish Orthodox nursery school, as Westheimer worked as a maid and attended
M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
classes at
The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
.America's Significant Other: Dr. Ruth (1991)
''OpenMind'' 1991.
Philanthropist, author, advocate, and socialite
Jean Shafiroff Jean Shafiroff is an American philanthropist, author, advocate, and socialite. Serving on multiple national and regional philanthropic boards, she is the ambassador and spokesperson for American Humane Feed the Hungry COVID-19 Program. She is t ...
has been a trustee of the Jewish Board since 1992. Illustrator and writer of children's books Maurice Sendak donated $1 million to the Jewish Board in memory of his partner psychoanalyst Eugene Glynn after Glynn’s death in 2007; Glynn had treated young people there. The gift was to name a clinic for Glynn.


Services and programs

The Jewish Board is
New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
's largest social services nonprofit. Its services are
non-sectarian Nonsectarian institutions are Secularity, secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian i ...
, as it serves people from all religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, and by 1991 40% of its clients were not Jewish. It has over 3,300 employees, including over 350 social workers, psychologists, doctors, and nurses, and 2,200 volunteers, serving over 43,000 New Yorkers annually at its community-based programs, residential facilities, and day-treatment centers in each of the five boroughs of New York City as well as in
Westchester County Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
and Long Island. Its programs cover mental health outpatient clinic for teenagers, adults living with mental illness, children and adolescent services, volunteering, Jewish community services, counseling, domestic violence and preventive services,
early childhood Early childhood is a stage in human development following infancy and preceding middle childhood. It generally includes toddlerhood and some time afterward. Play age is an unspecific designation approximately within the scope of early childhood. ...
and learning, people living with
developmental disabilities Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...
, homeless, refugees, and professional and leadership development.


Jewish Community Services

The Jewish Board's Jewish Community Services program provides religious support for
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...
and social services, including education on the
opioid epidemic The opioid epidemic, also referred to as the opioid crisis, is the rapid increase in the overuse, misuse/abuse, and overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs opiates/opioids since the 1990s. It includes the sign ...
and on domestic violence, to New York City's Jewish community.


Mental health support for veterans

To support the
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...
of veterans in the New York City area, many of whom avoided care because they felt there was a stigma around seeking help, the Jewish Board and the Bronx VA Medical Center worked toward creating family-focused mental health services for veterans and veteran families of the
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
Wars living in
the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
in New York City. The program was then expanded to provide
long-term care Long-term care (LTC) is a variety of services which help meet both the medical and non-medical needs of people with a chronic illness or disability who cannot care for themselves for long periods. Long-term care is focused on individualized and ...
and access for veterans and families of veterans.


NYC students' mental health

The 100 Schools Project was started in 2016 in partnership with OneCity Health (
NYC Health + Hospitals NYC Health + Hospitals, officially the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), operates the public hospitals and clinics in New York City as a public benefit corporation. , HHC is the largest municipal healthcare system in the Uni ...
), Community Care of Brooklyn (
Maimonides Medical Center Maimonides Medical Center is a non-profit, non-sectarian hospital located in Borough Park, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in the U.S. state of New York. Maimonides is both a treatment facility and academic medical center with 711 ...
), Bronx Health Access (
Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center The BronxCare Health System, previously known as "Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center," is a hospital in the Bronx, New York City. It was founded as the Lebanon Hospital by Jonas Weil in 1890. In 1962, Lebanon Hospital merged with Bronx Hospital, and si ...
), and Bronx Partners for Healthy Communities ( SBH Health System) to address gaps in children’s mental health resources. It connects middle schools and high schools in New York City with local
community-based organizations Community organization or Community Based Organization refers to organization aimed at making desired improvements to a community's social health, well-being, and overall functioning. Community organization occurs in geographically, psychosocially, ...
and trains teachers and staff on the basics of diagnostic and intervention methods to help support student’s mental and
behavioral health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health ...
.


AIDS education and support

Former CEO Dr. Jerome Goldsmith, who also served on the board of the
Gay Men's Health Crisis The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." His ...
service organization, was one of the first to recognize the importance of mental health services for people with
HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
, and advocated to increase the availability of mental health care for those affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York City. Bob Zielony, who directed of the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education department of the Jewish Board for six years, was involved with outreach to Jewish communities in the New York area to educate them on the immunodeficiency virus, as well as ways to prevent transmission, occasionally using Jewish-centric themes such as ''
pikuach nefesh ''Pikuach nefesh'' ( he, פקוח נפש, lit=watching over a soul) is the principle in Halakha (Jewish law) that the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious rule of Judaism. In the event that a person is in critical dang ...
'', the obligation under Jewish law to save lives under any circumstances" as justification for safe sex practices. In 2018, the Jewish Board acquired the Alpha Workshops, which provides training in the
decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...
as a licensed school of design for LGBTQ, LGBTQ+ adults and/or those living with HIV/AIDS and other disabilities.


Controversy


Dr. Neubauer's twin study

In the late 1950s, psychiatrist Dr. Viola Bernard of
Louise Wise Services Louise or Luise may refer to: * Louise (given name) Arts Songs * "Louise" (Bonnie Tyler song), 2005 * "Louise" (The Human League song), 1984 * "Louise" (Jett Rebel song), 2013 * "Louise" (Maurice Chevalier song), 1929 *"Louise", by Clan of ...
, a prominent New York City Jewish
adoption agency Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
in the 1960s, created a policy to separate
identical twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
for adoption, with the intent that "early mothering would be less burdened and divided, and the child’s developing individuality would be facilitated." In 1961, psychiatrist Dr.
Peter B. Neubauer Peter Bela Neubauer (July 5, 1913 – February 15, 2008) was an Austrian-born American child psychiatrist and Psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst. Life The Neubauer family was part of a small Jewish community in Krems an der Donau, Austria, where Peter ...
, then director of New York's Child Development Center of the Jewish Board of Guardians, began a multi-year " nature versus nurture"
twin study Twin studies are studies conducted on identical or fraternal twins. They aim to reveal the importance of environmental and genetic influences for traits, phenotypes, and disorders. Twin research is considered a key tool in behavioral genetics ...
to observe how the separated siblings would fare in different environments, from birth to age 12, throughout the 1960s and 1970s. This involved at least eight sets of identical twins and one set of
triplets A multiple birth is the culmination of one multiple pregnancy, wherein the mother gives birth to two or more babies. A term most applicable to vertebrate species, multiple births occur in most kinds of mammals, with varying frequencies. Such bi ...
deliberately separated and placed into adoptive families by Louise Wise Services under Dr. Viola Bernard's policies. As a condition of the adoption, the parents agreed to in-person visits of up to four times a year by the study's research team, during which the children would be observed, questioned, tested, and/or filmed, without knowing the true nature of the study. The parents of the adopted children were also not informed by Louise Wise Services that they were part of a twin or triplet set, and one
biological mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gesta ...
to a set of twins separated by Bernard and studied by Neubauer reported that Louise Wise Services did not inform her that her children would be separated. Ultimately, one of separated siblings committed suicide. Some have drawn ethical comparisons with the notorious Nazi twin study by the same
Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
that Neubauer himself had escaped, while others have opined that the study was ethically defensible by the standards of the time. Dr. Neubauer's study was never completed, and in 1978 the Jewish Board of Guardians merged with Jewish Family Services to form the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services. In 1990, a decade after suddenly ending the study, Neubauer and the Child Development Center of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services arranged to have the locked records kept at
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. The Jewish Board established terms that gave it the power to approve or deny any requests to access the records for the next 75 years. The study records are currently in the custody of Yale University,
under seal Filing under seal is a procedure allowing sensitive or confidential information to be filed with a court without becoming a matter of public record. The court generally must give permission for the material to remain under seal. Filing confident ...
until October 25, 2065, and cannot be released to the public without authorization from the Jewish Board. Louise Wise Services' adoption records are held by
Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children is a New York-based licensed and Hague-accredited non-profit providing adoption services, which includes the continuum of counseling and support services to members of the adoption triad: birth parent ...
. Dr. Neubauer died in 2008. In 2011, two identical twins who reunited as adults, Doug Rausch and Howard Burack, sent a letter to the Jewish Board requesting to see their records. The Jewish Board initially denied that Rausch and Burack had been part of the study, until the brothers were able to produce archived notes from one of Dr. Neubauer's former research assistants proving that they were indeed part of the study. The Jewish Board says Dr. Neubauer's study records are sealed to the public until 2065 to protect the privacy of those studied. To this date, all study subjects who have requested their personal records have received them, albeit heavily redacted and inconclusive. The Neubauer study was the subject of the memoir '' Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited'' (
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
; 2007), written by two of the identical twins, and Professor Nancy L. Segal’s book, ''Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart'' ( Rowman & Littlefield; 2021). It was also the subject of the documentary films ''The Twinning Reaction'' (2017; following reunited twins) and ''
Three Identical Strangers ''Three Identical Strangers'' is a 2018 documentary film directed by Tim Wardle, about the lives of Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, a set of identical triplet brothers adopted as infants by separate families. Combining archiva ...
'' (2018; premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling, and on the shortlist of 15 films considered for the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...
. On television, it was the subject of the ''
20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...
'' television episode ''Secret Siblings'' (2018), with ABC television journalists
David Muir David Jason Muir (born November 8, 1973) is an American journalist and the anchor of ''ABC World News Tonight'' and co-anchor of the ABC News magazine '' 20/20'', part of the news department of the ABC broadcast-television network, based in N ...
and
Elizabeth Vargas Elizabeth Anne Vargas (born September 6, 1962) is an American television journalist who is the lead investigative reporter/documentary anchor for A&E Networks, and the host for Fox's revival of ''America's Most Wanted''. She began her new positi ...
.


References


External links


Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services
Official site of present organization {{Authority control 1845 establishments in New York (state) Adoption in the United States Adoption-related organizations Charities based in New York City Human subject research in psychiatry Human subject research in the United States Jewish charities based in the United States Jewish organizations based in the United States Jewish community organizations Jewish refugee aid organizations Jews and Judaism in New York City Organizations based in Manhattan Organizations established in 1845 Twin studies