Ariane and Rachel are already excited for their annual Hanukkah party next year. They’ll be cooking 300 latkes from scratch in the kitchen of their new home, a two-bedroom house in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset that’s just a few blocks from Ocean Beach. The couple met in San Francisco in 2013 and got married at City Hall in 2019, and they’ve dreamed of buying a home for a long time.
When Ariane and Rachel discovered their house needed a new roof, which cost more than they could manage with their own savings, they turned to Hebrew Free Loan. With assistance from our interest-free First Time Homebuyer loan, they got the roof replaced just before an atmospheric river drenched Northern California.
“This house is truly a place to call our own. We feel lucky to be part of the Bay Area’s Jewish community, which is filled with so many generous donors eager to help. We look forward to giving back in the future so we can help others.”
Both Ariane and Rachel have deep roots in the Jewish community. Ariane grew up in the San Fernando Valley and attended UC Davis with the help of an interest-free student loan from our sister agency, Jewish Free Loan of Los Angeles. Rachel was raised in a Jewish community in Ontario, Canada and spent every summer of her youth and young adulthood at Camp Tamarack, a Jewish summer camp in Michigan.
Attending Jewish summer camp had a profound and lasting impact on Rachel’s life. Her move to San Francisco was inspired by a transformative summer working as a wilderness leader at Camp Tawonga near Yosemite National Park. The couple loves bringing friends and community together under their roof for any occasion — they have a passion for great food and good times.
Ariane is passionate about health care and has built her career in medical research. Rachel has a social work background and has focused her career in the Bay Area on community engagement and philanthropic partnerships.
“We were overwhelmed by all the work our house needed before we could move in and worried about how to pay for it. Hebrew Free Loan made the process seamless and had all the answers we needed. It would be nice if all financial transactions were so easy!”
Ariane and Rachel intend their new house to be their home base for life. They love to travel and look forward to having global adventures again, and they love knowing they will always have a home and a community to come back to.
