Norfolk—Lolly Pearl Bernstein, 99, passed September 17, 2022. Born in Norfolk to Jacob and Jennie Donsky, she was raised in Colonial Place, was a graduate of Granby High School, a widow of Elmer Bernard Bernstein, and lifelong member of Temple Israel. She is survived...
Jewish News VA
Archives
Hyman Brooke
Norfolk—Hyman Brooke (Hymie), born May 7, 1923, passed away on Sunday, October 9, 2022 after a short illness. Born and raised in Norfolk, he graduated early from Maury High School and attended the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary. His studies were...
Rochelle “Shelly” Brown
Virginia Beach—Shelly Brown died peacefully at home in Virginia Beach, Virginia, one day before her 89th birthday. She was born and raised in Sydney, Nova Scotia, as Rochelle Gaum, where she and her sister Eleanor were sometimes mistaken for their British royal...
Hyman Cohen
Virginia Beach—Age 96! Hyman Cohen of Virginia Beach, Va. Hy Cohen was a loving, compassionate, generous, and absolutely adored pillar of his family and community. A wonderful father, husband, grand, and great-grandfather. “Hy” was a mensch with a jester’s wit who...
Milton Reid
Norfolk—Milton J. Reid, 90, died Monday, October 3, 2022 after several month of declining health. His beloved wife, Judy, and his children and grandchildren were by his side when he peacefully passed away. Milton was born in the Bronx, New York, on June 1, 1932 the...
Marcia Schwan
Norfolk—Marcia Solomon Schwan, devoted wife, loving mother, and artist who resided in Tidewater for nearly 70 years, died on September 21, 2022 at the age of 92. Born May 12, 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland to Dr. Samuel Solomon and Sara S. Solomon, Marcia graduated from...
Sierra Lautman is UJFT’s new director of Jewish Innovation
Education, and particularly Jewish education, has been the focus of Sierra Lautman’s professional life for years. Lautman and her family recently moved to Virginia Beach from Pittsburgh, where she was the Religious School director at Adat Shalom Synagogue. Before...
Patty Shelanski joins UJFT as Arts + Ideas manager
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s new Arts + Ideas manager, Patty Shelanski, is no stranger to Tidewater. Shelanski and her husband, Herm, recently returned to Norfolk after five years in Washington, DC, and she says, “we are so happy to be back in this...
Protesting rewritten history in Budapest
Wandering through the heart of Budapest, it is easy to stumble across Liberty Square. Entering the Park from the South, you are immediately confronted with a monument for “Victims of the German Occupation of 1944.” Hungary, represented by a helpless angel Gabriel, is...
A life of gratitude and generosity: Joseph Fleischmann
In 1938, Joseph Fleischmann, along with his mother, Ida, and sister, Rachel, fled Nuremberg, Germany. It was the end of a cold November, just weeks after a period of devastating violence known as Kristallnact or Night of Broken Glass. Members of Fleischmann’s family,...
Rosh Hashanah
Dear Readers, While the holidays feel a bit tardy this year (you know how they’re never on time…), it is still hard to believe that it’s the season again for apples and honey and shofar calls and sermons and holiday meals. And, for reflections. We asked some folks for...
Rescue of S.S. Quanza refugees took place nearly 80 years ago
This past Wednesday, September 11, marked 79 years since a rejected refugee ship arrived on Tidewater’s shores, sparking a battle of wills that reached all the way to the White House, and the narrow rescue of 81 refugees fleeing the horrors of Nazi-occupied Europe....
The Jewish community of Selma, Alabama
Prior to coming to Old Dominion University, I taught at Elizabethtown College in central Pennsylvania. It was there that I met one of my dearest friends, also named Amy, who is one of the college chaplains. When she told me that she was taking her students on an...
Ignite, reflect and envision as we usher in 5780
Last September, a room filled with members of our community joined together to kick off our 2019 Community Campaign and Arts + Ideas season. The results? An accelerated campaign with a significantly increased level of community support and our ability to meet...
He met Bob Dylan at a Jewish camp, and they stayed good friends for 50 years
Jewish summer camp is such a crucial part of the American Jewish experience that many Jewish adults, even in their older age, likely remember the names of many of the kids in their cabins from when they were 11 years old. One of those cabins more than 60 years ago...
Berendina Eman, a Dutch rescuer of Jews and concentration camp survivor
Berendina Eman, a Dutch-American woman who helped save dozens of Jews during the Holocaust and survived a concentration camp, has died. She was 99. Eman and her fiance, resistance hero Hein Sietsma, began their rescue efforts in 1942, two years after the Nazis...
Leonard Visotski
Basking Ridge, N. J.—Leonard Visotski, age 88, passed away on Friday, September 6, 2019 at Morristown Memorial Hospital in Morristown, N.J. Leonard was born in Throop, Pa., and resided in Warren for 23 years before moving to Basking Ridge 26 years ago. Leonard served...
Milton Rubin
Richmond—Milton was born on December 25, 1920 and passed away on Friday, August 30, 2019. At age 16, Milton entered the University of Delaware where he earned a math degree. He enlisted in the Army, serving in the Pacific theater and was there on VJ Day. A funeral...
I want to pray, but what do I say?
Lunch & Learn with Amy Lefcoe Wednesday, September 25, 12 pm Simon Family JCC, free In a world with increasingly more questions than answers, more and more people are seeking the serenity that comes from a relationship with G-d. Explore this unique opportunity to...
Tidewater Chavurah and Congregation Beth Chaverim meet for holidays
Joint High Holidays services will be held this year with Tidewater Chavurah and Congregation Beth Chaverim. Both congregations, without their own buildings, will worship and enjoy the holidays together. Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill and Jim Hibbard will officiate. The Beth...
A Century of Activity in Romania: an American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee exhibit
Leon Family Gallery Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus Through October The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was established on November 27, 1914 following the merger of two American Jewish relief committees, the Central Relief Committee for the Relief of...
Community Campaign and Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival launch
Thursday, September 26, 7:30 pm Sandler Family Campus Everyone has an important story—a story that impacts the community. Together, Tidewater’s Jewish community has a story of transformational impact both locally and globally. The inaugural IGNITE 2020! will be a time...
For Alfred Moses, luck comes in threes
When three teenage Jews approached an American lawyer on the streets of Bucharest with three bold questions, they unknowingly inspired a future U.S. Presidential advisor, UN Watch chairman, and U.S. ambassador to Romania who changed the lives of countless Romanian...
Matthew Cooper: Legal work in Israel
When Matthew Cooper joined American and Israeli attorneys to sue Iran on behalf of terror victims who were harmed by Iran for financial support to terrorist organizations, he certainly stepped up his summer. As a legal intern for the Israeli non-profit Shurat HaDin,...
Americans don’t know much about Judaism but love the Jews, survey says
(JTA)—U.S. Jews know more about religion in general than their non-Jewish neighbors, a new survey shows. Americans who are not Jewish, meanwhile, don’t know a lot about Judaism. But they like Jews more than any other religious group. And they think there are more Jews...
Burying Jewish books: UJFT makes it possible
On Sunday, August 18, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater took the first step in creating a coordinated community book burial. This came in response to Rabbi Michael Panitz, who contacted UJFT with a need to bury Temple Israel’s unused Holy books. The act of burying...