Other News

Originally from Boston, Dorothy Zimmerman moved to Tidewater in 1982 for a job with a psychiatric hospital. She immediately immersed herself in the community—often seen at Chrysler Hall and wherever else art and theater were taking place—and became active in her...

A native of Shiraz, Iran, Farideh landed in Tidewater in 1975 She is the author of two memoirs, Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman, about her childhood in Iran, and Leaving Iran: Between Migration and Exile, about her family’s departure from the country,...

Rick Mercadante, CSCS, CHC had a wakeup call when he was 48 years old. Overweight, suffering from hypertension, he had become one of the millions of Americans deteriorating from lifestyle related disease. Fearing for his life, Mercadante began a journey of...

(My Jewish Learning via JTA)—With costumes, spiels and lots of drinking, Purim is one of Judaism’s most raucous holidays. You might know about beautiful Esther thwarting evil Haman’s plans, the custom of getting drunk and what hamantaschen are. But we’re guessing...

Deadline: Friday, March 31 Applications are still being accepted for the Stein Family College Scholarship for the 2017-2018 academic year. The annual grant for Jewish students in Tidewater provides a scholarship of up to $10,000 a year for college tuition. Established...

NEW YORK (JTA)—Sometime between the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 17, and the following Monday morning, vandals damaged 170 gravestones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Jewish cemetery outside St. Louis. Beyond that, cemetery staffers aren’t sure when the attack happened....

Washington DC—The ongoing bomb threats aimed at Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) have sown fear in more than 100 Jewish communities and institutions across the country. “We call upon our public officials, in both word and deed, to do everything in their power to put a...

For Heather Sunderlin, mother of nine-year-old twins, Camp JCC has it all. She works full-time as the director of employee services at Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer; her husband, Rich, is in the Navy and is often away for weeks; and she wants her sons Dylan and Tyler...

Thirty business, legal and medical professionals assembled at Vandeventer Black law offices on Wednesday, April 17 to learn about Israeli innovation and the opportunity for Americans to invest in start ups in Israel. According to presenter Brian Rosenzweig of JANVEST,...

Students and faculty were guests of Old Dominion University’s Office of Intercultural Relations and Hillel on Monday, April 8, for the Yom HaShoah Holocaust Remembrance reception. Jay Ipson, a holocaust survivor from the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania, and a cofounder/...

The word Marathon has been used in many ways. ‘It was a marathon effort.’ Thoughts of ancient Greece. But add the word, ‘Boston,’ in front of it, and a jubilant scene of miles of cheering spectators marveling at the heroic efforts of the most athletic to the most...

A new survey launched by Dr. David Elcott and Stuart Himmelfarb explores the attitudes, activities, plans, priorities, and beliefs of Jewish adults 18 and over. The research targets all four adult generational groups (Millennials, Gen X-ers, Boomers and WWII/...

The board of directors of the Tidewater Jewish Foundation honored a long-time community leader and Life Trustee, Kurt Rosenbach, with a special award at its March board meeting. Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the organization that unites Jewish...

I was truly touched while being a guest at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Community Relations Council’s Community Faith Leader Seder a few weeks ago. It was a time of reflection and fellowship. I was touched to open the Haggadah and see a picture of Dr....

In June, 12 area Jewish women of diverse backgrounds and religious practices will leave Tidewater and head to Israel. Once there, they’ll visit some of the country’s holiest sites, raft down the Jordan River, swim in the Dead Sea, ride camels, eat, drink, and bond...

I recently attended the 2013 Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) Plenum with no expectations other than my personal goal of gaining a national perspective on the work I do as United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Community Relations Council vice chair. JCPA...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—For a trip that U.S. officials had cautioned was not about getting “deliverables,” President Obama’s apparent success during his Middle East trip at getting Israel and Turkey to reconcile has raised some hopes for a breakthrough on another front:...

“When I took the job of UJFT president, I made a promise to myself that I would never do anything to weaken our community, but only to make it stronger and I would never let a lack of funds prevent a Jewish child and family from experiencing the wonders our people and...

Using personal observations, religious instruction, an occasional joke and even a song, Rabbi Gavriel Friedman brought words of caution and messages of hope to an enthusiastic crowd at the Simon Family JCC on Saturday, March 9. “You are always affecting someone, and...

“This year’s trip to New York was fabulous. It changed my perspective on Judaism and I had an awesome time,” says Hannah Yarow, a student at Maury High School. Since 2002, the Norfolk Kollel has annually taken Jewish teens to New York for a weekend to never forget....

Temple Israel’s Outreach Program is not your mother’s outreach. The newly launched series of events that are part of the innovative program are mostly offsite, not necessarily religious, yet still provide a context that shows the warm and welcoming nature of the...

The word my mother, Linda Gissen, sculpted so beautifully, for every congregant to see and be reminded: REMEMBER. Remember the Holocaust. As very young Jewish children, our hearts and minds were indelibly ingrained with images and histories of the Holocaust. We were...

I recently returned from attending my first AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington D.C. I admit that I was overwhelmed by the experience and find it almost impossible to describe the amazing amount of knowledge and emotion I was exposed to at the conference. I can’t...

The annual “Varsity vs. Veterans” charity basketball game to benefit the athletic department of Yashivas Aish Kodesh (YAK) was held in the Jaffe Gym on the Sandler Family Campus on Thursday, March 7. A great crowd supported the cause and took their chances at winning...

It was fishnets and hamentashen as the Temple Israel Players presented their annual Purim spiel to an (almost) SRO crowd last month Temple Israel’s congregation knows to expect the unexpected on Purim: for the past several years, the Players have enriched each Megilla...

The Jewish Museum and Cultural Center continues to present quality educational and cultural arts programming to celebrate and highlight the Jewish legacy and contribution to Tidewater. Sunday, March 3, concluded the successful 2012-2013 lecture series: A Minority in...