The High Holidays are doing it again. . .  they’re arriving early!  Unlike the guest who rings the doorbell 15 minutes early without warning, the holidays don’t really sneak up on us. The first day of the Hebrew month Tishrei is where it always is on the Jewish calendar and this year it falls on Saturday, Sept. 12.  

With the news a near constant barrage of disturbing reports of antisemitism – much of it occurring in places once considered safe – it feels even more important to pause, to turn it all off, and to observe and celebrate the Jewish New Year.

In Tidewater, we’re fortunate to have multiple options for worship, with a style or type of observance for nearly everyone.  In fact, many congregations are advertising within these pages, welcoming old and new members to their services.  The rabbis, cantors, musicians, administrative staffs, and volunteers at these congregations all put in enormous amounts of time and effort to assure their services are meaningful, inspiring, and safe.  If you haven’t already, now might be the moment to join or re-join.

For me, the approach of the season is packed with fond memories of family gatherings and traditions, along with the awareness that it is important to be open to creating new ones.  My hope for you, our Jewish News readers, is that this Rosh Hashanah is filled with good health, peace, and the makings of memories to cherish for years to come. 

L’Shanah Tovah,

“PJ Library and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation team are sad to learn of the passing of musician, philanthropist, and American legend Dolly Parton. Dolly’s Imagination Library helped inspire Harold Grinspoon to found PJ Library in 2005,” the Foundation posted on Facebook. Parton believed every child should have the chance to fall in love with reading.  

 “When Harold had the privilege of chatting with Dolly in 2023, she shared the following with him: ‘I am honored to get to help inspire a love of reading in children. They truly are our future.’”

 Grinspoon says he remembers Parton as “a truly amazing person – not only a great artist, but a great entrepreneur and philanthropist. We honor Dolly for educating millions, for her remarkable career, her kindness, her art, and especially her generosity.”

 “Listen to some great music and read a beautiful storybook today in her memory. We send our heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and fans. May her memory be a blessing,” the Foundation’s statement concluded.

Parton’s Jewish connections, however, didn’t begin with Harold Grinspoon.

According to an article originally published in The Forward in 2020, in the mid-1970s, her career was at a standstill, and she was ready for a larger audience – beyond Country and Gospel. It was two Brooklyn-born Jewish men who assisted Parton in the leap from Nashville to mainstream stardom. Sandy Gallin, a successful talent agent helped her “crossover” in music and expand into TV, movies, and even her theme park.

 “In 1977, Gallin convinced Parton to record a song called Here You Come Again, written by the Jewish husband-and-wife songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil,” wrote Seth Rogovoy, in The Forward, “He brought in another Brooklyn native, Gary Klein, to produce the song and the album of the same name. The single cracked the Top 20 Pop Album charts and spawned her first Top 10 pop hit; the album was her first to sell millions. (Incidentally, her pop success didn’t come at the cost of her country credibility; the song sat atop the Country Singles chart for five weeks.) The song also garnered Parton her first-ever Grammy Award, for best female country vocal. Over the next few years, Klein produced a number of other hits for Parton.”

 In her book, Songteller, Parton wrote of Gallin, “We were so close and our relationship was so loving. We were from two completely different worlds, but we just clicked, somehow. He was just one of those friends that you find who you just know are going to be your friend forever.” After Gallin died in 2017, Parton told an interviewer, “Nobody could quite get how the Christian Southern girl and the New York Jewish boy could have so much in common. But it was real.”

There was just something about Dolly Parton that made her friendships, her success, her philanthropy, and her appeal all real and make sense to everyone.

 “My mother was a very astute businesswoman and quite visionary, and I am certain I am aware of her intentions as I worked closely with her and on her testamentary plans,” says Michael A. Glasser. “Rose Frances and Bernard were an outstanding team. My mother worked for decades at our law firm aside my father and later with my brothers and me. 

 “We can honor their memory and also elevate those she would intend,” he says. 

 According to Glasser, the reasoning behind the gift to the paper, is that Jewish News is an “essential connection to the greater Tidewater Jewish community and is extremely critical while Jews and Israel are targeted with harassment.” 

Ross Glasser, a grandson of Rose Frances and Bernard, notes that Jewish News “connects us all.”

Rose Frances Levinson Glasser, who lived to be 101, is said to not have wasted a moment. 

 According to her obituary, “When Rose Frances would speak, people would listen. She could be feisty when the circumstances required it and everyone knew where Rose Frances stood – always on the side of her family.”

 She graduated from Maury High School (Class of 1932) and Ohio State University (Class of 1936) with a degree in social work and took graduate courses at ODU. Her first full-time job after college was working for the City of Norfolk assisting families in need during the Great Depression. She dated and then married Bernard Glasser, a young Norfolk lawyer.

After Bernard’s death in 1983, Rose Frances spent three consecutive winters in Israel volunteering on various projects including knitting clothing for the Ethiopian immigrants, working at the Israeli Ministry of Justice, and at Israeli libraries binding books. 

 The generosity and vision of Rose Frances and Bernard Glasser continue to be honored today and for future generations. 

Thanks for reading,

Terri Denison
Editor

As a child in Houston, Linda attended Sunday School, became a Bar Mitzvah (he says his parents “made him,” but he’s now happy about that – especially since he’s still friends with his Bar Mitzvah Buddy), and went to synagogue with his family for all of the major holidays, and some of the minor ones, too.  

 Linda’s teen years were spent at Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where half of each school day concentrated on theater classes, including everything from voice lessons to learning aspects of lighting, costumes, etc.  Those classes he says, ensures he really appreciates the behind-the-scenes people, who “work many more hours than I do.”

In 2016, Linda left Houston for Chicago to attend Northwestern University, where he majored in theater. He’s one of those 2020 graduates whose graduation ceremony and festivities took place via Zoom.  

Not to be deterred, however, he’s remained in the Windy City, appearing in several productions at various theaters. Among his favorites are the Band’s Visit and Fiddler on the Roof.

“I’m obsessed with the score of the Band’s Visit,” he muses.  

Besides singing and dancing, Linda plays the piano and is a self-taught percussionist.  

The original animated version of The Lion King, he says, was “on the VHS rotation at home” when he was a toddler. He first saw the stage production when he was 12 years old once the national touring company made it to Houston. 

 Linda’s audition for the show is a story filled with mishaps that sound as if they are perfect fodder for a film about the trials of young actors.  His agent encouraged him to put together an audition tape that turned out to be good enough to get him a ‘callback’ to New York City. His trip from Chicago included being “trapped in Milwaukee” due to a cancelled flight, managing to get the last seat on “a crack-of-the-dawn” Delta flight bound for New York, taking a cab to the wrong place, and basically “feeling like a train wreck running on four hours of sleep” when he finally arrived at his audition.  “Maybe all of that helped,” he laughs, as he got the job!

And it’s a job doing what he loves that is taking him around the country to see and experience new places, such as Norfolk. (When asked if he had ever been to this city, he first responded, “Is THAT how you say it?!?) Quickly getting the pronunciation correct, he says he hopes to explore the entire area as time permits.

Feeling like he’s standing on the shoulders of Jewish humorists such as Eugene Levy and Mel Brooks, as well as those of his great grandfather who ran the synagogue in Crowley, La., Linda is appreciative of his roots. That great grandfather had a truck spray-painted orange with ‘Shalom Y’all!’ on the side.

“I think I inherited some of that humor.  He wore his Jewishness on his sleeve.”

 “There’s no way I would be where I am without the support of my parents,” he says.  “They are my biggest support system.  I try to tell them I appreciate them when I can.”

Linda says he is “Super grateful that I get to do this.  It’s so cool.”

The touring schedule for The Lion King says, “To be continued,” so Sam Linda might be on the road for a good long while.

The Lion Kingruns through Sunday, May 17
at Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall. Tickets are available
at the Scope Arena box office and at Ticketmaster.com. 

A Norfolk native, Leibler has lived in Israel for nine years.

“I came home to visit my parents, Grandma Nancy and Zayde, and other extended family,” says Leibler. “It was supposed to be a 10-day trip and instead, it has turned into two months.” 

Not only is Leibler not where she lives, she’s not near her new husband, Meir Leibler. 

A Lone Soldier (an Israel Defense Forces member who serves without immediate family in Israel), Leibler met her husband during Reserve Duty after Oct. 7. 

The couple planned their wedding to take place in June 2025, but as Liebler muses, “Iran messed that up. We got married on Aug. 5, instead.”

At the time Leibler boarded her flight in Israel with Norfolk as her destination, she admits she knew there was a possibility that travel issues might occur, as murmurs of war were brewing. She says, however, she was not dissuaded from making the trip because, “I really wanted to see my family.”   

 When asked if this was the first time she and her husband had been separated, she was quick to laugh, “We’re not separated, we are just not physically together.”  In truth though, it is not their first ‘physical separation’ in their young marriage. . . “Three days after we got married, Meir was called into Reserve Duty, and we were apart for three weeks.”  

 While her husband is serving, communication, she notes, is limited.  

 “We have a What’s App group with all the wives of the soldiers and we get daily updates that everything is going well, but aside from that, communication is very limited,” says Liebler. 

 Being so far away from her Israeli home, Leibler says, “I am very concerned about my family and friends in Israel, but I am very fortunate to have my family and friends in Norfolk.” 

 Since Leibler works remotely, “I have been able to work, and my company is very understanding and accommodating during these difficult times.”   

Still, she can’t recall the last time she has spent this much time Norfolk since she was 16 years old.  

 The forced stay hasn’t been all bad. “The weather has been amazing,” says Leibler.   

“I ended up being here for Purim and Pesach – and even joined a gym.”

And there’s been an added bonus for her family: “I went to Bishulm Culinary School in Yaffa while I was living in Israel, so my parents have definitely enjoyed me cooking for them.”

  For Leibler, though, she says, “I can’t wait to get back to my husband and my blind dog Stevie.”   

Both avid runners have completed a lot of marathons over their years of friendship, which began at the Simon Family JCC when Purcell was hired and Roesen was head of the Wellness committee.

 “We have run many of the same races over the last several decades,” says Purcell. In fact, they have completed 20 straight years of the Rock ‘n’ Roll ½ marathon that was held in Virginia Beach on Labor Day Weekend. 

 To train for the Boston Marathon, they took a couple of 20- and 22-mile long runs together.  “We discussed our training and communicated weekly to see how we’re doing,” says Purcell.

 “It was a pleasure to run with Howard and to get to experience the Grand Race again,” he says. “I just turned 60 years old and wanted to run Boston one last time.  Now I can say I’ve run a full marathon in every decade of my life from my 20s.  I’ll keep running 1/2 marathons, but I’m closing the chapter in my 60s.”

The cool Boston temps didn’t seem to bother any runners, Purcell and Roesen included. “The weather was perfect,” says Purcell, noting that ideal marathon conditions are in the upper 40s to low 50s.  “There was very little wind, and it was slightly overcast.  We had a late start in our corral, so it wasn’t until 11:30 am when we started.”

The last time Purcell ran the Boston Marathon was 20 years ago when he turned 40. “Those conditions were perfect, too, as I ran a 2:39 time (6:07 pace per mile).  I wanted to run Boston this time and enjoy and have fun with my dear friend Howard,” he says.  

“We had a blast to soak in the 130 years of the tradition of the Boston Marathon.”

Reba Karp held the distinction of sitting in the editor’s chair at United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, editing this, and other publications, longer than anyone else. Reba passed away on March 17 after providing this community with more than three decades worth of newspapers – an enduring archive of life in Jewish Tidewater – until her retirement in 2004.

Reba was as creative and talented as she was driven and determined to do more – producing Renewal, a quarterly magazine and To Life, a book featuring testimonials of area Holocaust survivors, all while publishing paper after paper. She also found time to write her own books – novels and historical volumes.

Working for the Jewish community was personal for Reba. She travelled to Israel several times and took various other trips to Jewish sites throughout the world.  While not religious, she was committed to Israel, to calling out antisemitism, and to preserving the messages of the Holocaust and its survivors, especially those in Tidewater. 

“Her leadership made sure that antisemitism was fought and the diverse aspects of Judaism were heightened and celebrated,” recalls Harry Graber, former executive vice president of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.  

 “Reba was a robust and gifted professional whose leadership while editor was creative, visionary, and diligent,” he says.

Reba annually entered and won Press competitions, both with Virginia Press Women and the American Jewish Press Association. 

“Reba was one of a kind,” muses her old colleague and long-time friend Betsy Karotkin.

To call Reba, “one of a kind” is a lovely understatement.  Until just a couple of years ago, Reba drove a Corvette, with her VET GAL license plate moving to each new model she purchased. At the same time, she wore flowy dresses, and jewelry made from crystals and geodes. She spoke about her dreams and their meanings and predictions, along with the teachings of Edgar Caysee, the clairvoyant.

When I began my turn in Reba’s chair, she offered up lots of advice. Lots. And lots.  In fact, she called with more just several months ago.  Her suggestions usually made good sense, and plenty of them I follow to this day. 

 Along with her advice, Reba also ranted – as she did in our last call. She was funny, feisty, intelligent, foul-mouthed, and absolute in her convictions. The combination made for a fun conversation or interesting lunch. . .though she was very particular about choosing a restaurant.

 I’m still sitting in Reba’s chair, and the desk drawers still house her things. Some may call me crazy for not replacing the chair or not tossing her notes, but it’s really been out of respect for the extraordinary editor, and for the past 21 years, editor emeritus, that Reba was.    

 At her retirement, the late Hal Sacks, who was the paper’s book review editor and long-time friend of Reba’s wrote: 

Ode to the Queen

Here’s to Reba whose heavenly muse

Gave us three decades of the Jewish News;

Deadlines would beckon, arrive with a whoosh,

Reba delivered with a little shmoosh;

As we from this fair eve in September

Your great works will ere remember.

Reba made certain Jewish Tidewater will always remember.