First deadline: November 15 The newly revised Simon Family Passport to Israel program is now accepting applications through Tidewater Jewish Foundation. The program provides funds to enable and encourage Jewish students to participate in an Israel trip experience....
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Update on Federations’ National Emergency Response Efforts
Jewish Federations of North America’s Emergency Committee, and many Federations on the front lines of addressing natural disasters, have had an extraordinarily busy and taxing eight weeks since the start of Hurricane Harvey. Following is an update on the work of the...
No way, José! — HAT Golf Tournament drives on
It was a dark and stormy morning with driving rain and winds gusting up to 30 miles per hour. Temperatures were cooler than usual for mid-September. Hurricane José was making its closest point of approach through the Atlantic off of Virginia’s coast. Although the...
Commodore Levy Chapel
When a Jewish family or individual moves to a new community, they face many immediate challenges, not the least of which is choosing a synagogue, getting involved in the Jewish community, meeting new friends and creating a new social network. For a member of the...
Finding Jewish in the U.S. Navy
During my more than 20 years in the Navy, two distinct times highlighted the Jewish community in the military coming together. While at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., there was a large and active Jewish Midshipmen Club. All “plebes” (first year students)...
Simon Family JCC, CRC, and community partners’ Israel Today, educating people about misconceptions
Erez Kaganovitz, Israeli artist, storyteller, and founder of the hit photoblog, Humans of Tel Aviv, landed in Tidewater ready to dispel misconceptions and ideas about his homeland by sharing stories of everyday people living in Tel Aviv. Through these stories of...
Jody Wagner gets honored, JFS reaps the reward
A leader of many organizations throughout Tidewater, Jody Wagner recently made a special gift to Jewish Family Service of Tidewater happen. Since 2006, Wagner has been a member of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation’s (HRCF) board of directors, including serving as...
Rabbi Jason Rubenstein’s multi-faceted visit to KBH reached many
“I’ve studied Rav Hutner before, but never like that,” says Rabbi Arthur Ruberg, rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El. That is just one reaction after learning with Rabbi Jason Rubenstein at a pre-Selichot learning session, Saturday, Sept. 16, at Kehillat Bet...
A great start to a new year for BeAR
The Be A Reader literacy program kicked off the 2017-2018 school year with a welcome breakfast and meeting on Monday, Sept. 18 for nearly 50 new and returning volunteers. Gail Flax, program chair and founder, spoke about the program and BeAR captains talked about...
Maccabi Transatlantic Cup Golf takes Jeff Flax to England
Twelve Jewish American golfers went to battle with 12 Jewish British golfers using their clubs—their golf clubs, to be clear. These top amateur golfers played in the 22nd Maccabi Transatlantic Cup Golf Matches Sep. 12 through Sep. 15. Virginia Beach resident, Jeff...
Tidewater joins International Yom Limmud movement
Sunday, Nov. 12, 1–5 pm Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus Yom Limmud (Hebrew for “learning”) promotes global Jewish unity by offering an inclusive cross-communal space for Jews of all ages and backgrounds to meet, learn, volunteer, and build community. Since its’...
Talk about memorable proposals…
This is the end of the story Max Wagner popped the big question to Stephanie Guld after popping out of a plane. Yes, after skydiving! Spoiler alert: She said yes. Backing up to the BBYO beginning Stephanie grew up in Richmond, Va. where, when she was 15 years old and...
Free film documents the Israel Philharmonic’s dramatic beginning
Orchestra of Exiles, documentary Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7 pm • Sandler Family Campus, Free and open to the community In anticipation of the Virginia Arts Festival performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on April 2 in Virginia Beach, the Community Relations Council...
ChavuRAH!
A group of Ohef Sholom parents and children came together on Sunday, Jan. 12 to celebrate the holiday of Tu B’shevat, the New Year for the Trees. While not planting trees, planting was the theme of the day. Master Carpenter Jim Douglass made a beautiful planter for...
Tallwood High School students reflect on Israel experience
To take 10 students overseas alone for any length of time seems like a task for someone who has a screw loose. To compound that craziness by making it a three week trip to Washington D.C., New York City, Jerusalem, Modi’in, Jaffa, Haifa, Masada, and Tel Aviv is the...
Community gets its most wanted crime information at FBI program
Walking away from the FBI’s Community Relations Executive Seminar Training, attendees of the event, which took place at the Simon Family JCC on Sunday, Jan. 12, held in their hands a nicely printed certificate confirming their attendance, and tried to grasp in their...
Team goes beyond care
Not all cases are the same, and so, not all needs are the same. The recent case of a 38-year-old male palliative care patient of Freda H. Gordon Hospice and Palliative Care of Tidewater is a perfect example. Diagnosed with stomach cancer in October, this relatively...
Hebrew Academy parents bond over baking
Jewish education is not just for kids. Marissa Kempner, Patti Seeman and Ashley Lemke, active parents of Hebrew Academy’s parent organization (Hakesher) recently spearheaded a special challah baking class for HAT and Strelitz preschool room parents. The results proved...
Heart and “soles”
It was rainy and cold on Thursday, Jan. 2 as Ohef Sholom Temple began its second night of hosting the weeklong Norfolk Emergency Shelter Program (NEST) with the help of its neighbor, Ghent United Methodist Church. Sadly, one homeless man arrived in the rain and cold...
Elli’s love for Israel extends to area teens
Elli Friedman spent her childhood and early teen years thinking she loved Israel. But that love, the 17-year-old now realizes, came about because that was what she was always taught she should feel. It didn’t come from the tangible connection that’s held her in its...
Tidewater Jewish Women come together for a Sunday afternoon “Chick Flick” and more
Nearly 60 women attended the recent joint United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Women’s Outreach and Jewish Women’s Salon event held at the Sandler Family Campus. The third annual “Girls’ Afternoon at the Movies” featured the 2013 award-winning film, Dorfman in...
The Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Alma* and Howard Laderberg
Turning 21 was a celebration at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts when the Simon Family JCC’s Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Howard and Alma* Laderberg, held its Opening Night on Saturday, Jan. 18. More than 350 people attended to see The...
Israeli celebrity chef injects hummus, ‘balagan’ into Jewish heart of Paris
PARIS (JTA)—In the elegant silence of a narrow street near the River Seine, David Moyal takes a breath of fresh winter air and enters a noisy restaurant in the French capital. Inside Miznon, he is transported to another world, filled with the cacophony of Hebrew...
Israel: Jewish and Democratic
This is one of five op-eds that appeared in The Times of Israel (and now, Jewish News). It is reprinted with permission. Gil Troy is part of the Community Relations Council’s Israel Today Forum. Even nations need recognition, right? We exist in the world as...
At Tu b’Shvat, digging for spiritual growth — January 16
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—While my neighbors were putting their Christmas trees to the curb, in what seems like a ritual of replacement, I was preparing to plant for Tu b’Shvat. My friend Freda recently presented me a cutting from an Angel’s trumpet—a small tree with...
Teaching in today’s modern classrooms
Every year Hebrew Academy and the Strelitz Early Childhood Center administration join hundreds of other educators in Richmond at the Annual Conference of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools. “Continuing education programs like these,” says Rabbi Mordechai...
Israeli-Bedouin diplomat says Israel’s diversity is abundant
If anyone can speak about diversity in Israel, it’s Israeli diplomat, Ishmael Khaldi. An Israeli-Bedouin-Arab-Muslim, Khaldi has been a minority his entire life—from the Arab Christian school he attended in the north of Israel, to college, to his service in the...
Speaker shares his theory of Muslim Brotherhood as global threat
Kyle Shideler didn’t come to Congregation Beth Chaverim on Monday, Dec. 9 to make the Tidewater Jewish community feel comfortable. He came to make audience members squirm, reciting broad statistics and showing images of terrorists and organizational tracts on a...
Tidewater teens at AIPAC
Four Tidewater teens attended AIPAC’s Schusterman Advocacy Institute High School Summit in November. Each year, AIPAC partners with select Jewish Day Schools, synagogues, national youth groups and teen leadership organizations to bring 400 student leaders from across...
Jewish Family Service’s Chanukah Gift Program 2013
Jewish Family Service’s 21st Annual Chanukah Gift Program was a huge success. Each year, JFS reaches out to local Jewish families in need with gifts and gift cards for their children and teens and with money for those without children. This year, the JFS staff was...
Hillel at Virginia Tech celebrates Thanksgivukkah
The Malcolm Rosenberg Hillel Center in Blacksburg, Va. was filled with more than 250 students on Thursday, Dec. 5 for a Thanksgivukkah celebration. Marking a time when two holidays collide, this party was referred to as #VTT hanksgivukkah. In preparation for the...
The Sandler Campus’ Secret Santa
Visitors to the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus frequently see the observant, dedicated and serious demeanor of Jason Capossere, the Campus’s manager of safety and security. Beneath this professional exterior, rarely seen and largely unheralded, is Capossere’s...