Originally published in the February 8, 2021 issue. Sunday, February 21-Tuesday, February 23 (virtual cinema!); $12 per household The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC's Patricia & Avraham Ashkenazi and Alma & Howard Laderberg Virginia...
Jewish News VA
Archives
Tidewater Chavurah’s A Rock ‘N Roll Purim
Originally published in the February 8, 2021 issue. Friday, February 26, 7 pm Ready to rock 'n roll with the Tidewater Chavurah, as Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill reads the Meggilah? Remember, it's a mitzvah to enjoy oneself to the fullest and get so happy that it's...
Israel Today Presents: Israel Story, An Intergenerational Conversation!
Originally published in the January 25, 2021 issue. Wednesday, January 27, 12 pm, free The Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, Embassy of Israel, & Community Partners' 10th Annual Israel Today,...
Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Virtual Date With The State 2021
Originally published in the January 25, 2021 issue. Wednesday February 3, 10 am Come together (virtually) with Jewish community leaders from across the Commonwealth to hear from Governor Ralph Northam and other policy makers on issues important to the statewide Jewish...
Temple Israel’s 1st Thursday: The potential for peace between Palestinians and Israelis
Originally published in the January 25, 2021 issue. Thursday, February 4, 7:30-8:30 pm The US embassy is in Jerusalem and more Arab countries have recognized Israel, but the relationship between ordinary Israelis and Palestinians has never been worse. So says the...
Lawrence Steingold to receive VCIC Humanitarian Award
Originally published in the January 25, 2021 issue. Thursday, March 18, 6:30 pm, virtual The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities will honor Lawrence L. Steingold at its 57th annual Tidewater Humanitarian Awards Dinner. These VCIC honors are presented to...
Temple Sinai in Newport News named to Virginia Historic Register
Home of the only established Reform Jewish congregation on the Peninsula, Temple Sinai has been added to the Virginia Historic Register. At a joint meeting of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources State Review Board and the Board of Historic Resources, the...
Mary Catenaccio: Kosher Italian
Mary Catenaccio is a lively, mobile and very vocal 106-year-old resident at Beth Sholom Village. That information alone is a good enough story. However, as with many BSV residents, there is so much more to Mary. Russian Jewish immigrants, Mary’s parents moved to the...
JCC’s Celebrate Israel Series plans an action-packed April and May
The Simon Family JCC’s Second Annual Celebrate Israel series, presented by Charles Barker Automotive, will deliver four powerful and inspiring events in April and May. Last year, the JCC began the series, which joins several programs to highlight Israeli culture. “The...
Save one life, save a world
Dr. Ofer Merin speaks to Tidewater community Israel has long been known as a lone democracy in a region torn apart by ethnic and religious conflict. But what might be less known is Israel’s unparalleled efforts of sending medical rescue delegations to disaster zones....
Leyla Sandler impacts children in India
It must be in her DNA. Leyla Sandler, LCSW, spends her life helping others, whether in her “day job” or when she has “time off.” Sandler’s “day job” is spent as an investigative social worker on child abuse cases in Washington, D.C. Her recent “time off” was spent...
Statement on Virginia State Bar decision to cancel seminar in Israel
The Tidewater Jewish community joins with the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in their statements of condemnation following the Virginia State Bar’s decision to cancel their Midyear Legal Seminar...
Op-Ed: My son’s encounter with anti-Jewish hatred
(JTA)—Last summer our family went to southern Europe on holiday. During our stay at a hotel, our son Dylan went to the swimming pool. A short time later he came running back to the room, upset. A man at the pool had started hurling insults at him. My first instinct...
Passover and Appomatox
This year, Passover coincides with the 150th anniversary of the conclusion of the fighting in the American Civil War. The sesquicentennial ought to prompt us to reflect on our dual identity as American Jews, on the high cost of freedom, on the lessons to be learned...
Virginia State Bar cancels Jerusalem seminar, cites ‘discriminatory’ border policies
The Virginia State Bar canceled its plans to hold a legal seminar in Jerusalem, citing “unacceptable discriminatory policies and practices pertaining to border security.” The Midyear Legal Seminar trip to Jerusalem had been scheduled for November, according to the...
Passover
Dear Readers, Passover begins this year on Friday evening, April 3. Nineteen years ago, the first seder also took place on April 3. Why do I remember? My daughter, who will be 19 on April 4, was letting me know in her own gentle way that she was ready to make her very...
Meyera’s Jewishness was front and center at her well attended memorial service
There have been funerals of significant Jewish business and philanthropic leaders over the years in Hampton Roads, but not of many prominent political figures who observed our faith. Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf was one of the few. The memorial service in...
JWRP women changing the world
It was a night of reconnecting as women from past Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project Israel trips came together at the home of Marcy Mostofsky to make mishloach manot (gifts of food between friends) for the residents of Beth Sholom Home to be delivered on Purim. The...
Check Mate: HAT Chess Club teaches strategy and sportsmanship
Want to be a better problem solver? Play chess. That’s what Hebrew Academy of Tidewater students do who participate in the Chess Club, under the guidance and expertise of local master chess player, Rabbi Michael Panitz. Rabbi Panitz, who volunteers his skills at HAT,...
Hunger is year-round
Millions of Americans who live on the brink of hunger are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet as the winter’s record snowfalls hit many parts of the country. Nearly 70 percent of the households served by Feeding America report that their most common...
Hebrew Ladies Charity Society continues its mission with JFS partnership
For the past 113 years, through several generations of change, the Relief Committee of Hebrew Ladies Charity Society (HLCS) has honored its mission of meeting the needs of local Jewish families requiring urgent financial assistance. The organization has provided food...
Almost ‘Norfolk native’ creates Haggadah for baseball fans of all ages
The Baseball Haggadah: A Festival of Freedom and Springtime in 15 Innings by Rabbi Sharon Forman Illustrated by Lisa J. Teitelbaum 54 pages 2015/5775 A Reform rabbi and a mom of “dedicated little leaguers,” Rabbi Sharon Forman has created a Haggadah that covers all of...
YAD’s Purimpalooza party is a wild success
The Young Adult Division of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater threw the craziest Purim party in town on the evening of Saturday, March 7. Nearly 200 revelers joined in the circus-themed fun and dressed up to walk the red carpet at the Sandler Family Campus of...
AIPAC: Record number of pro-Israel community convenes at critical moment
Thousands of pro-Israel activists gathered in Washington, D.C. March 1-3, 2015 for the largest-ever American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference to reaffirm the broad bipartisan consensus in support of the U.S.-Israel relationship. With violence...
Across Oceans and Generations—A Jewish History of Tidewater
Documentary premieres to standing room only crowd As somber music plays in the background, the prow of a boat cuts through dark waves in the dramatic opening scene of a new documentary about the Tidewater Jewish community. A narrator’s voice begins over an illustrated...
Will Netanyahu’s campaign rhetoric cause further estrangement with Washington?
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Obama administration’s first response to news that Benjamin Netanyahu had been reelected as prime minister of Israel appeared to be avoidance. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday, March 18 that the president would wait...