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Time to celebrate

Time to celebrate

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, publicly read the Declaration of Independence of Israel on May 14, 1948. The anniversary of this date on the Jewish calendar is known as Yom Ha’atzmaut, and this year is Thursday, April 19. As the Tidewater Jewish...

Jewish victims, survivors, and activists

Jewish victims, survivors, and activists

The school shooting in Parkland, Florida last month has impacted and mobilized the Jewish community from Florida to Massachusetts and beyond. Consider: • Five of the 17 killed were Jewish. • The Sheriff leading the investigation is Jewish. • The Congressman...

Winter Olympics 2018: 5 Jewish storylines to watch

Winter Olympics 2018: 5 Jewish storylines to watch

( JTA)—The world is about to revolve around Pyeongchang, a mountainous county in the northern half of South Korea, for the upcoming Winter Olympics. Jewish fans won’t have quite as many standout athletes to cheer for this year as they did in 2016, when multiple...

Steve Sandler hosts NextGen leadership kickoff

Steve Sandler hosts NextGen leadership kickoff

Show up, give of yourself, and take your place in the story of our community’s future. That was Steve Sandler’s message, delivered in rousing fashion to a packed house of young leaders at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Ben-Gurion Society and National...

25th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film

25th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film

25 Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film presented by Alma & Howard Laderberg* and Patricia & Avraham Ashkenazi Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018 – Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018 Multiple theaters throughout Virginia Beach and Norfolk Free—Pre-Festival event Marshall Monday,...

Tidewater women celebrate community, leadership, and joy

Tidewater women celebrate community, leadership, and joy

Janet Mercadante, 2018 Women’s Cabinet chair, welcomed more than 75 participants to the 2018 Lion-Tikva Chai luncheon on Thursday, Nov. 9. In her opening remarks, she thanked each one for their part in the successes of past campaigns. She shared the current state of...

Israel Votes 2013

Likud leads, but rise of Yesh Atid, Jewish Home bode bumpy road ahead for Netanyahu TEL AVIV (JTA)—His party shrunk, his opponents grew and his challengers multiplied. But with the results in, it seems Benjamin Netanyahu survived the Knesset elections on Jan. 22 to...

Super Sunday on January 27 promises exponential return on investments

When Jewish communities initiated the one-day Super Sunday phone-a-thon 30 or so years ago, they essentially were mirroring other successful fundraising events of the time, such as the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon. Volunteers called from a bank...

Film Festival looks back over 20 years

View the full film schedule here The Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, which will celebrate its 20th consecutive year as a major cultural event in this community Jan. 19–27, was a feat for a community this size when it began in 1993. Twenty years ago, Marty...

Revitalized Synagogue-Federation Partnership strengthens community

Jewish communities across the United States are grappling with the reality of dwindling synagogue memberships, struggling or shuttered JCCs, shrinking Day School enrollment and little opportunity for Jewish culture, education and interaction. This area is not immune...

Operation Pillar of Defense: Lessons learned

(JTA) – As Israel and Hamas mostly stilled their guns after reaching a cease-fire agreement, ending eight days of intense bombardment, both sides took home some new lessons about their foes. By firing longer-range rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,...

Tidewater Jewish women experience Cuba

Cuba? Bucket list? Not on it for most of us, and by most of us, I mean the 28 women who signed on for last month’s United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s/Joint Distribution Committee sponsored women’s mission to Havana Cuba, led by mission chairs Laura Gross and Jodi...

2nd District Congressional Forum

Thursday, Oct. 25, 7 pm Represenative Scott Rigell and challenger Paul Hirschbiel will participate in a forum at the Sandler Family Campus, to which the community is invited and encouraged to attend. Jewish News presented the candidates with the following questions:...

A Modern-day Exodus

Nearly 30 years ago, the world was forced to reconsider what it means to “look Jewish” when, through Operation Moses and, six years later, Operation Solomon, more than 22,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to their new home in Israel. The United Jewish Federation of...

Looking back at the highlights of 5772

NEW YORK (JTA)—The following is a review of the news highlights of the Jewish year 5772. September 2011 • An Egyptian mob breaks into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and Israeli personnel are stuck inside for hours until Egyptian commandos arrive at the scene. Israeli...

Bringing Israel Home — An event just for college students

Eleven Jewish college students from Tidewater gathered on Thursday, June 14 to embark on their next adventure of pro-Israel advocacy. After sharing personal stories of anti- Israel sentiment on their campuses, as well as on a national level, the group decided “to step...

Florence Melton Adult Mini- School has 10th graduation

The 10th graduation of adults from the Simon Family JCC’s Florence Melton Adult Mini-School took place on June 4. Thirteen adults completed the “core” program which involves two years of classes for 30 weeks each year. After these two years, students celebrate their...

Temple Sinai is back home at Ohef Sholom Temple

Nearly 60 years after leaving Ohef Sholom Temple, Temple Sinai returned, merging the two congregations during a multi-faceted day of ceremony, service and celebration on Sunday, June 3. The morning began in Portsmouth at Temple Sinai. In noting that rabbinic...

Women’s Cabinet Spring Luncheon welcomes and inspires

Sitting in the sunlit great room of Cindy Kramer’s Virginia Beach home, members and guests at the Women’s Cabinet Installation Luncheon were served a healthy meal peppered with introductions, information and conversation. The annual meeting, held this year on May 10,...

Largest turnout ever for JCC Israel Festival

More than 1,300 festival goers flooded into the cardo and all over the Simon Family JCC into the back fields, where they rode a camel, ate falafel, played gaga, wrote notes at the “Western Wall,” and so much more at the JCC’s biggest Israel Festival to date. It was a...

Netanyahu pledges decisive response as rockets slam southern Israel

As southern Israel was barraged by rockets for a fourth straight day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was hitting back "strongly and decisively," and its Iron Dome anti-missile defense system was intercepting many of the rockets coming from the Gaza...