The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (the Jewish Board) is one of the United States' largest

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

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. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

agencies, and

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

's largest social services nonprofit. Its services are

non-sectarian Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group. Academic sphere Many North American universities identify themselves as being nonsectarian, such as B ...

, 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 The boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that comprise New York City. They are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective Administrative divisions of ...

as well as in

Westchester County Westchester County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The county is the seventh most populous cou ...

and

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. Its programs include 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 A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

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 2005 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), the Hebrew Relief Society (formed by

Congregation Shearith Israel The Congregation Shearith Israel (), often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 2 West 70th Street, at Central Park West, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, 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 is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

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

Brockhaus and Efron Jewish Encyclopedia e2 213-0

United Hebrew Charities was formed in 1874 in New York City to organize relief and charitable work for the many

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, 1804May 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 educat ...

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 described ...

, 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 along the lines of the Elberfeld system. In the early 1870s, ...

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 ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, 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. Emmalazarusengraving

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 Georgism, Georgist causes. She is remembered for writing the sonnet "The New Colossus", which wa ...

, best known for her 1883

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

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 The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

.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 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 States House ...

and

Nathan Straus Nathan Straus (January 31, 1848 – January 11, 1931) was an American businessman and philanthropist who co-owned two of New York City's largest department stores, R. H. Macy & Company and Abraham & Straus. He was the namesake for the Isra ...

. In 1895, its headquarters were at 128 Second Avenue in Manhattan. Banker and businessman

Solomon Loeb Solomon Loeb (born Salomon Löb, 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 ...

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 The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the superior court in the Judiciary of New York. It is vested with unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction, although in many counties outside New York City it acts primarily as a court of civil ju ...

judge Mitchell L. Erlanger was a member of the board of the United Hebrew Charities, lawyer and philanthropist

Joseph L. Buttenwieser Joseph Leon Buttenwieser (1865–1938) was an American lawyer, philanthropist, and civic leader in New York. Biography Buttenwieser was born to a American Jews, Jewish family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of immigrants from Germany. Bu ...

also served on the board, and lawyer and New York Supreme Court judge Nathan Bijur was its vice president. From 1904-05, rabbi, social worker, and philanthropist

Solomon Lowenstein Solomon Lowenstein (March 3, 1877 – January 20, 1942) was an American rabbi, social worker, and philanthropist. Life Lowenstein was born on March 3, 1877, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Levi Lowenstein and Diana Newmayer. Lowenstei ...

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, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

s to

state prison State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

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 Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term ...

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 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 Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

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, i ...

, worked at the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York, a care center for girls and boys with

. Also in the 1930s, physician and politician

Käte Frankenthal Käte Frankenthal (; 30 January 188921 April 1976) was a German physician and politician. After receiving a doctorate in 1914, she worked at a hospital in Berlin, before leaving to become a doctor in a small town. After the outbreak of World War ...

worked with Jewish Family Service. RuthWestheimer-a

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 Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

and orphan

Ruth Westheimer Karola Ruth Westheimer (née Siegel; June 4, 1928 – July 12, 2024), better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German and American sex therapist and talk show host. Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her paren ...

(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. classes at

The New School The New School is a Private university, 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 p ...

.America's Significant Other: Dr. Ruth (1991)
''OpenMind'' 1991. Philanthropist, author, advocate, and socialite

Jean Shafiroff Jean Shafiroff (née Lutri) 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 , American Humane Feed the Hu ...

has been a trustee of the Jewish Board since 1992. Illustrator and writer of children's books

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Send ...

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

's largest social services nonprofit. Its services are

, 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 worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...

s, 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

as well as in

and

. Its programs cover mental health outpatient clinic for teenagers, adults living with

, children and adolescent services, volunteering, Jewish community services, counseling,

and preventive services, early childhood and learning, people living with

, homeless, refugees, and professional and leadership development.

Jewish Community Services

The Jewish Board's Jewish Community Services program provides religious support for

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 or abuse, and overdose deaths attributed either in part or in whole to the class of drugs called opiates or opioids since the 1990s. It inc ...

and on

, to New York City's Jewish community.

Mental health support for veterans

To support the

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, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Wars living in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

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 nonprofit corporation, public benefit corporation. NYC Health + Hospitals ...

), 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 s ...

), 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

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." Foun ...

service organization, was one of the first to recognize the importance of mental health services for people with

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

, and advocated to increase the availability of mental health care for those affected by the

HIV/AIDS epidemic The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS ...

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 Immunodeficiency, also known as immunocompromise, is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious diseases and cancer is compromised or entirely absent. Most cases are acquired ("secondary") due to extrinsic factors that aff ...

virus, as well as ways to prevent transmission, occasionally using Jewish-centric themes such as ''

pikuach nefesh ''Pikuach nefesh'' (), which means "saving a soul" or "saving a life," 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 critic ...

'', the obligation under

Jewish law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

to save lives under any circumstances" as justification for

safe sex Safe sex is sexual activity using methods or contraceptive devices (such as condoms) to reduce the risk of transmitting or acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs), especially HIV. "Safe sex" is also sometimes referred to as safer ...

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 aim is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. This includes most of the objects for the interiors of buildings, as well as interior design, but typically excl ...

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, 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 Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

for

adoption 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, fro ...

, 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, then director of New York's Child Development Center of the Jewish Board of Guardians, began a multi-year "

nature versus nurture Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology and society about the relative influence on human beings of their genetics, genetic inheritance (nature) and the environmental conditions of their development (nurture). The alliterative ex ...

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 a 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 births ...

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 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, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

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 Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. 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. 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 imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

; 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 Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an American independent academic publishing company founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns ...

; 2021). It was also the subject of the documentary films ''The Twinning Reaction'' (2017; following reunited twins) and '' Three Identical Strangers'' (2018); premiered at the

2018 Sundance Film Festival The 2018 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 18 to January 28, 2018. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 29, 2017. Awards The following awards were presented: * U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award: '' T ...

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 The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Academy Honorary Award, Special Awards to ''Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. The ...

. On television, it was the subject of the ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of visual perception, vision, but technically rates an animal's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity depends on optical and neural factors. Optical factors of the eye ...

'' television episode ''Secret Siblings'' (2018), with ABC television journalists

David Muir David Jason Muir ( ; born November 8, 1973) is an American journalist and anchor for '' 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 ...

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 was the host for Fox's revival of '' America's Most Wanted'' (2021). She began he ...

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 New York City Jewish community organizations Jewish refugee aid organizations Jews and Judaism in New York City Organizations based in Manhattan Organizations established in 1845 Twin studies