After more than two centuries of combined work in the Twin Cities Jewish community, and more than two years of discussion, planning, and study, the area’s Jewish social service organizations are uniting.
Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis is acquiring Jewish Family Service of St. Paul. The new entity will be called Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minnesota and will operate out of the current locations – Golden Valley and St. Paul. The acquisition officially closed on Oct. 10 and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
Ruth Hampton Olkon, the executive director of JFS, said that her organization initiated the conversation with JFCS.
“The board and leadership felt like this was the right time to explore the opportunity, and decided it was the right path for the overall community,” said Olkon. “There has been a trend of organizations in the Jewish community and the broader community, combining and joining forces to be stronger together.”
Amy Weiss, the chief program officer of JFCS who will be the CEO of the new organization, said that the two organizations have been working together on programs and events and within the community for a number of years, including work with Holocaust survivors through the Claims Conference, J-Pride, and the annual Jewish Mental Health Conference.
“[JFS] has always had really strong programming, but not the breadth of programming we have,” Weiss said. “We have 30 programs, and when I think about all of the programs we offer that we have never really publicized in the east metro that we can now start talking about is awesome to think about.
“Changing the name to JFCS Minnesota makes it clearer that we really are serving everyone, and we can talk about ourselves as a statewide organization.”
JFCS was founded in 1910, a year before its counterpart in St. Paul. Weiss said that both were created out of a need within their communities.
“Both have evolved as the needs and the communities have changed,” she said. “And now we get to pick the best of both of them and create this new vision going forward. We have things to learn. We have things to share. So now, how do we take those things…and be stronger together.”
How it happened
JFCS CEO Judy Halper said there had been discussions of a merger between the organizations by early 2023. JFS had been about to start a strategic planning process and Olkon said to her board that creating a subcommittee to review the idea of JFS and JFCS working together “in greater collaboration” should be part of their review.
JFS President Tom Cytron-Hysom said that working in greater collaboration with JFCS – whatever that looked like at the time – fit under two of the goals in the JFS strategic planning document: “Ensure program and service impact,” and “build financial strength and stability.”
“Over the years, there has often been community chatter, and within the two agencies, of ‘Should we be one agency serving the entire metro area?’” said Cytron-Hysom. “There was quite a long process of mutual consultation between our boards.”
In April 2024, Olkon, Cytron-Hysom, and Secretary Kate Searls met with Halper and then-JFCS Board President Natalie Zamansky to discuss a potential merger. The organizations established an 11-person steering committee, comprising representatives from each of their boards, which first convened in June 2024.
“It was a really big picture conversation,” Halper said of the first meetings.
In the midst of these discussions, JFS lost a contract from UCare to provide contracted care management services for UCare members in Minnesota, specifically supporting seniors and people with disabilities enrolled in the Minnesota Senior Health Options and Minnesota Senior Care Plus plans.
Cytron-Hysom said that other social service agencies had their contracts terminated or reduced as UCare decided to move those services in-house rather than outsourcing them.
“They emphasized that it had nothing to do with our quality of services; in fact, [the] last year, they did not even do their formal review, because they said we had always had such excellent results,” he said.
Both Olkon and Cytron-Hysom said the UCare situation alone didn’t lead to this decision.
“We had enough reserves to cover it for a while, but in the long term, the loss of that contract certainly meant that we would need to look at some significant change to our services, whether that meant merging with another agency or significantly downsizing to the point where we might not be viable in the real long term,” Cytron-Hysom said. “That contributed to the whole, overall situation.”
As the steering committee wrapped up its work, the decision was put to the JFCS board.
“We brought it to our board in September of 2024 and the question before the board was basically, do you all agree that we should pursue a merger with JFS? Are we given permission to see where this takes us?” Halper said. “And our board approved it unanimously.”
Halper’s committee said it was their strong desire to provide dignity to JFS in what was a trying time.
“I heard my board members say, ‘We don’t want people to say, St Paul had to close; why didn’t JFCS help them?’” Halper said. “If there was some way we could help them, we would. We weren’t sure what was going to happen at that point, but at least we could say we tried.”
Changing leadership
Weiss, who was announced as Halper’s successor in July, will become the first CEO of JFCS Minnesota. Halper will be the fifth and last CEO of JFCS Minneapolis.
“It’s always been in my mind that I would get this project done, and I feel like it’s actually the perfect time for me to hand it over,” Halper said. “And of course, all the folks that have helped me, my C-suite, they’re ready to go with this, and they know what they need to do.
“I feel like this is the perfect handoff and the perfect way to do it, and I’m going to be super excited to be watching.”
Halper hopes the move paves the way for an increase in stature for JFCS Minnesota.
“Everybody knows Catholic Charities, everybody knows Lutheran Social Services, and I want Jewish Family and Children’s Service to be in that big three,” she said. “I think we’re going to be on our way.”
The board, for the first year, will be what Halper called a “transitional board”; the full JFCS board plus 10 members of the JFS board. After that, Halper said the board structure is wide open.
“They said ‘we do not expect a legacy board,’” Halper said, explaining that JFS leadership did not ask for or expect a certain number of seats on the board to go to St. Paul residents. “We’re excited because the pool just got bigger and there are more people to choose from. ”
What was important to JFS leadership was maintaining a St. Paul location – which was also important to Halper – and acquiring as many programs and staff as possible. Halper said 26 of 31 staffers will be part of the move, as well as all but two of the programs. One of the programs not coming over was due to sunset in the first quarter of 2026, so it will end at the end of this year. The other, JFS’s chaplaincy program overseen by Rabbi Lynn Liberman, will move to St. Paul Jewish Federation at the end of this year.
“The Chaplaincy program embodies our community’s values of presence, compassion, and connection,” said David Kaplan, the CEO of SPJF. “By ensuring its continuity, we are affirming our commitment to sustaining this vital program for the Greater St. Paul community.”
Cytron-Hysom understands the mixed emotions that many may have over this move.
“[The acquisition is], honestly, probably in the best interest of the overall community. Certainly in the long term, and probably in the short term, in ensuring that our services can continue,” Cytron-Hysom said. “There is some sadness about an agency that’s been around for over 100 years not being independent anymore. I think we made the best decision that we could have.”
Olkon is among the staff who will not have a role in the new organization. She joined JFS in 2019, helping lead the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic. She had previously worked at the organization from 2005 to 2011 on the programming side.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to set this up for success. So that’s what I’m focused on right now,” Olkon said. “Two agencies will join and there will be great services throughout both communities [and] throughout the state.”