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Seizing the moment Terri and Lonny Sarfan “We’re going to break the norms this year,” says Terri Sarfan. Playing with the calendar a bit, Terri and Lonny plan to begin their family’s Hanukkah celebration just after Thanksgiving dinner. Terri says they want to take...
For Noa Tishby, it has become a mission to educate and engage with the rampant antisemitism and anti-Zionist corners of Twitter and other social media platforms. On Wednesday, October 13, Tishby shared her expertise with Tidewater’s Jewish community as the first...
In sports terms, one might call Ron Koas a rookie. In rabbinic circles, the 60-year-old is just a late bloomer. He came to Congregation Beth El in July as his first senior pulpit. Raised as a secular Jew in Israel, his roundabout path to the rabbinate included IDF...
(JTA)—When Rabbi Lisa Gelber heard that the Food and Drug Administration had approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5–11, she couldn’t wait for the moment that her daughter would get the shot. But she also knew her daughter was scared of needles....
There is something very apropos and meaningful about the convergence of two beautiful holidays, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah—both of which represent a celebration of religious freedom and are centered on the theme of gratitude for the blessings in our lives. As you...
Congregation Beth El SIX13, a cappella singing group, in concert at Beth El Sunday, December 5, 4–5:30 pm, in-person and online Congregation Beth El is celebrating its 171st Anniversary and Hanukkah with a concert by the world-renowned male a cappella singing group,...
WYNCOTE, PA—Reconstructionist Rabbinical College awarded one of the first five grants of the Auerbach Entrepreneurial Grant Program to Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill, spiritual leader of Tidewater Chavurah. Rabbi Jaffe-Gill, a 2014 graduate of the seminary, will use her...
Through June 16, Slover Library, Norfolk Mythically, with a wash of whimsy, this collection by includes 8- and 3-foot sculptures, which feature both obsolete and repurposed objects. The collection imparts a powerful, societal statement connecting past, present and...
Friday, June 17–Sunday, June 19, Kempsville Conservative Synagogue When Kempsville Conservative Synagogue/Kehillat Bet Hamidrash began planning A Taste of Challah Days Around the World, no one imagined where it would lead the congregation. Planning a Shabbat...
Who doesn’t love a good before/after story? Hebrew Academy graduates from the Class of 2010 make a great one. And from the look of the photos, some pretty impressive growth happened in just a few short years. These students make HAT proud with their good hearts and...
It was a standing-room only crowd as the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and its community partners presented the final event in their 5th Annual Israel Today series on May 10. Matti Friedman, former Jerusalem Bureau reporter...
Past, present and future leaders of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Young Adult Division (YAD) gathered to hear the Community Relations Council’s Israel Today speaker Matti Friedman, and enjoy dinner and cocktails on Tuesday, May 10. YAD offers different...
Dear Readers, In honor of Father’s Day, we asked a few daughters and sons who work with their dads to write a couple of paragraphs about the experience of spending their adult lives alongside their fathers. The responses were incredibly passionate, respectful,...
Successful nonprofits must change with the times. And so, to remain vital to their communities, Jewish organizations across the nation are making strategic structural moves. In the Tidewater Jewish community, two organizations with a closely aligned vision, the Simon...
(JTA)—Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But that’s not the end for Bernie Sanders, by far the most successful Jewish presidential candidate in American history. The Independent Vermont senator is defiant and says he’s taking the fight...
June 23, 2006 Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel of Ohef Sholom Temple sang the National Anthem to open the Tides game at Harbor Park. Attendance that night was 8,606, including 118 from Ohef Sholom as part of the Men’s Club Annual Tides Picnic. June 7, 1996 The board of...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing growing accusations that his campaign is countenancing anti-Semitism— if not encouraging it outright. Trump’s foreign policy slogan, “America First,” echoes the World War II -era...
“Charity is not something we wait to do when we feel like it. We know if we wait to be inspired the inspiration may never arrive,” says Karen Jaffe, chair of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater Annual Campaign. “So we perform acts of righteousness, whether or...
Year-long Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus renovation project is complete For the past 12 months, the sounds of children’s voices and clacking keyboards mingled with those of hammers and drills in the classroom hallways, offices and common areas at 5000 Corporate...
Israeli-developed HyGIeaCare® Center now open in collaboration with Gastrointestinal & Liver Specialists of Tidewater A new HyGIeaCare Center, where patients experience simple and easy bowel prep on the same day as their scheduled colonoscopy, recently opened at...
Saturday, June 4, Exhibit opens at Slover Library, Norfolk In 2014, As Lorraine Fink took down her art show at the Leon Family Gallery and loaded it into her car, she was drawn by “a silent vibrant cry from a small mountain of metal and plastic at the edge of the...
For the fourth consecutive year, Tidewater students had the opportunity to learn some “cool facts” about Israel and share what they learned by creating original works of art. The 4th Annual Israel Poster Contest, sponsored by the Community Relations Council of the...
Rabbi Morton Leifman, who oversaw the training of Conservative movement cantors for decades, has died. Leifman, a former vice president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and longtime dean of its Cantors Institute, now called the H.L. Miller Cantorial...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Ernest (Ernie) Michel, who after surviving Auschwitz and a forced death march went on to become a prominent American Jewish communal leader, has died at 92. Michel died at his home in Manhattan on Saturday, May 7. He worked as a Jewish communal...
Virginia Beach —Estelle Ruth Hochstadt, 93, passed away peacefully on May 9, 2016. She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Lena and Meyer Tabatchnick. She was the third of four sisters. She married the love of her life, Gerald Phillip Hochstadt on August 13, 1943. They...
Coconut Grove , Fla .—Rose Ann Leventhal Grossman died peacefully in her home on May 4, 2016. She was 90 years old. A native of Norfolk, Mrs. Grossman was the daughter of Louis Leventhal and Agatha Liebman Leventhal. She was predeceased by her husband of more than 40...