In honor of Veterans Day, the third and fourth grade class of Joanna Schranz at Toras Chaim School, under the leadership of Rabbi Yonah Lazar, held a special program to recognize the holiday. Craig Schranz a Commander in the United States Navy Reserve (and the...
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Israel Today partnered with Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio to showcase flame-worked glass demonstration with visiting artist Dafna Kaffeman
In a first, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, Embassy of Israel & Community Partners’ 11th Annual Israel Today Series partnered with the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio to welcome...
A piercing elegy, a poetic meditation: An evening with Adam Mansbach
Wednesday, December 8, 7:30 pm, online Adam Mansbach is mostly known for fiction writing. He is the author of a #1 New York Times bestselling “children’s book” series that is, in fact, meant for adults in the throes of parenting who need a good laugh. His dry comedy...
Congregation Beth El celebrates its 171st anniversary and Hanukkah
Sunday, December 5, 4–5:30 pm Congregation Beth El World-renowned a cappella singing sensations Six13 will perform at a community-wide, family-friendly, high-energy celebration at Congregation Beth El to mark the congregation’s 71st anniversary. The in-person event...
B’nai plans celebration for congregation’s 75 years
Friday, January 14 and Saturday, January 15 A commemorative and celebratory Shabbos Shira is planned for B’nai Israel Congregation’s 75th anniversary. This special Shabbos, featuring renowned singer and chazzan, Simcha Leiner, will be filled with memories, joy, and...
Aaron Feuerstein, ‘Mensch of Malden Mills’ who paid his workers even after his factory burned down, dies at 95
(JTA)—Aaron Feuerstein, who became known as the Mensch of Malden Mills for continuing to pay his workers even after the textile factory he owned burned to the ground, died at 95 on Thursday, November 4. The devout Orthodox businessman died at his home in Brookline,...
Renee Heyman
Norfolk —Renee Heyman of Norfolk, Va., a beloved wife, mom, and grandmother died at her home on June 28, 2016. She was born on January 1, 1935 in Lithuania to the late Sima and Bernard Ginsburg. She grew up in New York City and worked for many years at the Breast...
Fred A. Buns
St. Pete Beach , Fla .—Fred A. Buns, 92, passed away July 9, 2016. Born in Baltimore, Md., Fred came to Florida in 1983 after living in Gainesville and Alexandria, Va. A longtime retail and real estate entrepreneur, Fred was engaged in many aspects of life within the...
Ralph “Jerry” Bernstein
Norfolk —Ralph “Jerry” Bernstein, 89, of the 1600 block of Sheppard Avenue, passed away on Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at his son and wife’s house in the quiet of his bedroom. He was a native of Norfolk, and was the son of the late Louis and Anne Bernstein. Jerry graduated...
Shaina and Andreu Moore on the birth of their son, Benjamin Grayson Moore, on June 24, 2016. He is the brother of Caleb Jerome Moore, grandson of Brenda Gordon and Ben Gordon (of blessed memory), and Tom and Darlene Tupper.
Israeli Scouts to perform at Simon Family JCC
Wednesday, August 3, 6 pm, Simon Family JCC Ten 17-year-old Israeli Scouts and two leaders will visit the Simon Family JCC in early August. Each Friendship Caravan of Scouts, or Tzofim, consists of five males and five females. The Scouts are all accomplished...
Israeli portrait photographer Miri Hyman’s exhibit focuses on mothers
Leon Family Art Gallery at the Simon Family JCC July 20–August 20 A white billowy hood crowns a woman’s face peeking out of the darkness. Ceremonial robes drape the human form. The composition is swallowed in sorrow. Monochromatic tones transition from deep blacks to...
Turning readers into leaders
The Simon Family JCC’s Be a Reader (BEAR) program was honored at the Virginia Beach City Public Schools 2016 Community Celebration in April. BEAR’s success continues to receive recognition and accolades for the impact the program has on the community. But the real...
JFS Biennial Meeting: an installation and celebration
At the 63rd Biennial Meeting of Jewish Family Service of Tidewater on June 9, Lawrence Steingold, outgoing president, handed over the reins to Jeff Cooper, who will serve as president for the 2016- 2018 term. Throughout the evening, the focus was on celebration,...
Pain of Syria’s war captured
The Morning They Came For Us (Dispatches From Syria) Janine Di Giovanni New York: Liveright Publishing 206 pages, $25.95 The Morning They Came For Us is an important book with lasting consequence by author Janine Di Giovanni, award-winning (including two Amnesty...
A well-written analysis of the “Arab Spring”
A Rage For Order—The Middle East in Turmoil: From Tahrir Square to ISIS Robert F. Worth Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016 259 pages, $26 ISBN978-0-374-25294-6 When Robert Kaplan published his collection of articles, Balkan Ghosts, in 1995, it was immediately recognized...
Legal Matters
Interfaith coalition urges Senate action on Supreme Court vacancy. Fifteen Jewish groups joined an interfaith coalition in calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. During a conference call...
Elie Weisel offered inspiration and challenge
Like so many of members of our community, I had the honor of hearing Elie Wiesel speak at ODU’s Ted Constant Convocation Center in March 2006. Always the conscience of his generation, Wiesel lamented how little humanity had changed since the Holocaust. Wondering...
Elie Wiesel gave the Holocaust a face and the world a conscience
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate who became a leading icon of Holocaust remembrance and a global symbol of conscience, died Saturday, July 2 at 87. His death was the result of natural causes, the World Jewish Congress said in a...
From the Hal Sacks Jewish News Archive
July 2006 Zena Herod officially became the head of school for Hebrew Academy of Tidewater and the Strelitz Early Childhood Center. Helen Kisser joined administration as new director of general studies and assistant director of SECC. Alene Kaufman continued as director...
Magical Thinking
Remember Mr. Ed, the talking horse of the early 60s sitcom? I think of him every year when Parshat Balak (Numbers 22:2-25:9) rolls around, as it does this week. The chumash Etz Hayim describes Balak as containing “what may be the only comic passage in the Torah,”...
Jewish community denounces racism, xenophobia and violence
We, the undersigned Jewish community organizations, stand together in denouncing racism and xenophobia in all circumstances. We share a belief that public figures, including those who aspire to hold elected office in service to people of all races and religions, have...
Top officials put a Jewish stamp on the Rio Olympics
RIO DE JANEIRO ( JTA)—Mazel tov! That’s perhaps how the big shots in charge of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the first to take place in South America, will toast victories when the competition gets underway Aug. 5. Three of the top officials of the Rio 2016 Organizing...
Simon Family JCC Biennial Meeting honors the hard work of many, focuses on future collaborations
The 2016 Biennial Meeting of the Simon Family JCC took place on Wednesday, June 15. During the meeting, outstanding community accomplishments were acknowledged, awards were presented, a president bid his farewell, and a prospective president explained that the...
Patricia Kelsay Wisoff
Norfolk —Patricia Kelsay Wisoff, beloved wife for 65 years to Dr. Carl Peter Wisoff, passed away in her home in Norfolk, Va. surrounded by family on Monday, June 13, 2016—just shy of her 86th birthday. Born amid the great depression, the onset of the great plains dust...
Elliot M. Juren
Norfolk —Elliot M. Juren, 70, passed away June 7, 2016 after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. Elliot was born in Portsmouth, Va., and was the son of the late Ben L. Juren and Lillian Reuben Juren. He graduated from Maury High School and received his BA in English...