The BINA curriculum actively encourages high school students “to develop their love for Hashem, His Torah, and the Jewish people.” The close-knit BINA staff partners with parents to help each student actualize her potential in a supportive and challenging academic...
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Beth El feeds Tidewater: If you can’t feed a hundred people then feed just one.
During this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all experiencing a relentless hunger—a hunger for our children and grandchildren, a hunger for our friends, a hunger for “normalcy.” But few of us, gratefully, have known hunger as an empty stomach crying out for food....
Dozoretz Hospice House, the region’s first, will assist grieving Families
Mary Parker was not ready for her husband of 33 years to die and certainly not for the intense care he would need in his final days. “Charles was just 48 when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma before his death at the age of 64. After years of treatment, his...
As life lessons go, virtual Bar Mitzvahs make the path to ‘adulting’ real, fast
In 2020, Carin Joffe Simon and husband Mike Simon planned the first Tidewater virtual Bar Mitzvah for their son, Nate. When Betty Ann Levin watched the event, which was livestreamed on Facebook from their home, she joined the community of friends and family...
Pandemic-poked weddings: A new altar, an un-altered dress, and an altered state of mind
If you think the new sitcom, Call Your Mother is about children avoiding their mothers during the pandemic, you would be half right. The show, starring Kyra Sedgwick, is based, however, on life after the pandemic. The life-after-COVID messaging is pure hope and...
Hayden Caplan’s mitzvah project: Gaming for Gold for a friend
As Hayden Caplan prepared for his upcoming bar mitzvah in May, there was no question what he wanted to do for his mitzvah project. A friend from his pre-school days at Hebrew Academy of Tidewater, Benjamin Goldberg, an amazing young boy, passed away at just eight...
Brunch to celebrate Alene Jo Kaufman
Sunday, June 1, 11:30 am To honor Alene Kaufman’s 36 years of dedication to the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Konikoff Center of Learning and Strelitz Early Childhood Center, a brunch will take place at the Sandler Family Campus. Kaufman will retire as director of the...
Business professionals tackle discussion of pro sports and arena proposals Scoring Big: Bringing the Pros to Hampton Roads
Tuesday, May 27, 5:30 pm, Harbor Park, Norfolk. For business and legal professionals. It’s not time to decide the winners just yet, but big league players, in the form of two business alliances, are lining up to win the rights to build and manage a new 18,000-seat...
Elie Wiesel student competitions continue to engage young minds
Student Holocaust Commission art exhibit opening reception Tuesday, May 20, 5–7 pm, in the Atrium, ODU Virginia Beach More than 1,400 students entered the 2014 Elie Wiesel Writing and Visual Arts Competitions presented by the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish...
Winning essays awarded at Ohef Sholom Temple Religious School
For his Bar Mitzvah project, Bradley Friedman chose to administer the First Annual Ohef Sholom Temple Religious School Essay Contest. All students in grades one through 10 were invited to participate. The topic for this year’s contest was: “Our Temple was founded in...
HAT student wins 2014 Israel Poster Contest
Leo Kamer had a selection of cool facts about Israeli innovations to choose from as inspiration for an illustrated entry in the area’s 2014 Israel Poster Contest. The one the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater fifth grader liked the best, though, had to do with a bicycle....
TJF celebrates 30th anniversary, Simon Family Legacy Society and retirement of its president and CEO
The Tidewater Jewish Foundation celebrated its 30th anniversary, acknowledged the members of the Simon Family Legacy Society and honored Philip Rovner on his retirement from the Foundation after 18 years of service on Thursday, April 24. Approximately 150 people...
Chinese and Kosher?
After several months of discussions and preparation, Beth Sholom Village was host to a family dinner with congregants of B’nai Israel. The concern that Beth Sholom Village is not at a level of Kashrut for many of the Orthodox community has been around for some time....
Community supports Israel at Independence Day event
The Tidewater community showed its support for Israel at a celebratory event held on May 6 in honor of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. The Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, in partnership with the Simon Family JCC’s...
Can a relationship celebrate a Bar Mitzvah?
The “Bar Mitzvah boy” did not receive a fountain pen. There was no sheet cake shaped like a Torah scroll. No band played too loudly, and no one raided a 401k plan to pay for the event. And yet, when two of Tidewater’s Masorti/ Conservative congregations, Kehillat Bet...
Tee up and head out to the Simon Family JCC’s Annual Golf Tournament
Tuesday, June 24, noon Heron Ridge Golf Club Virginia Beach The Simon Family JCC’s 4th Annual Presidents’ Cup Tournament has actually existed as a golf tournament since the 1980s. It was renamed the Presidents’ Cup to honor past presidents who have served as leaders...
Yom Hashoah Commemoration honors the past, celebrates the present and provides hope for the future
Just when you think it can’t get more meaningful, it does. This year’s Yom Hashoah program, sponsored by the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater at Ohef Sholom Temple on Sunday, April 27, was another poignant and powerful tribute to those...
ADL survey: More than a quarter of the world hates Jews
NEW YORK (JTA)—A lot of people around the world hate the Jews. That’s the main finding of the Anti- Defamation League’s largest-ever worldwide survey of anti-Semitic attitudes. The survey, released Tuesday, May 13, found that 26 percent of those polled —representing...
Avoiding pitfalls
The Talmud (Bava Kammah 50a) speaks about digging pits. It is illegal to dig a pit and leave it uncovered and accessible. If there are any damages, the digger is liable. However, if the person digging the pit donates the pit to the public, he is free of all...
Jewish groups decry Supreme Court’s town council prayer ruling
WASHINGTON (JTA)—An array of Jewish groups criticized a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing prayers at town hall meetings. The 5–4 decision along conservative- liberal lines handed down Monday, May 5 reversed a lower appeals court decision in favor of a lawsuit...
Artwork of Lorraine Fink, On the Run/To or From
Tuesday, May 13- Wednesday, June 18th Images of anthropomorphic animal shapes will soon be seen joyfully dancing, flying and swimming across the walls of the Leon Family Art Gallery at the Simon Family JCC. In her show, On the Run/ To or From, award winning artist,...
Rabbi Aaron Landes, longtime Naval Reserve chaplains chief
Rabbi Aaron Landes, a Philadelphia congregational rabbi for decades and the longtime director of U.S. Naval Reserve chaplains, has died. Landes died on April 19 following a battle with leukemia. He was 84. He managed some 700 chaplains as head of the chaplains corps...
Hans John Rosenbach
Chevy Chase , MD—On Saturday, April 19, 2014, Hans John Rosenbach of Chevy Chase, Md., passed away. He was the beloved husband of Joan Kurcias Rosenbach; loving father of Margo (Robert Gottlieb) Rosenbach and Stuart Uri (Guila) Rosenbach; dear brother of Kurt (Rose)...
Martin Lawrence Rosen
Norfolk — Martin Lawrence Rosen passed away after a brief illness in Miami Beach on April 18, 2014. Martin was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on March 14, 1925. He was predeceased by his parents Nathan and Carrie Rosen and his brother Arnold P. Rosen. Martin is survived by...
David Kittner
Jenkintown , PA—David Kittner, 95, of Jenkintown, a lawyer and longtime partner at Blank Rome L.L.P., died Friday, April 18, at his home. A native of North Carolina, he graduated from Weldon (N.C.) High School in 1934 and went on to earn a business degree from the...
Mabel Estelle Rackley Hirschbiel
Virginia Beach —Mabel Estelle Rackley Hirschbiel, 98, left peacefully on April 17, 2014. Mabel was born on Feb. 1, 1916 in Norfolk, Va. to William S. and Mabel Warren Rackley. She grew up in Park Place, graduated from Maury High School in 1934 and attended Mrs....