Since launching in September, the Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s Life & Legacy program has created new levels of excitement and engagement within the Tidewater Jewish community. The Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s Life & Legacy program is a four-year initiative...
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Holocaust organizations, scholars and educators sound alarm on surge in hate crimes; issue call to action to lawmakers and citizens
(New York, NY)—In a powerful statement issued by an array of Holocaust institutions, scholars and educators from around the world (including United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Holocaust Commission), an alarm is being sounded on the rise of groups that promote...
Holocaust Commission members attend National Social Studies Conference
In early December, Dana Cohen, a child survivor of the Holocaust and a member of the Holocaust Commission, Elena Barr Baum, director of the Holocaust Commission, and I attended the annual conference of the National Council for the Social Studies in Washington, DC,...
Stein Family College Scholarship set to open for applications
Now in its ninth year, the Stein Family College Scholarship will begin accepting applications on January 3, 2017 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. The...
Grandparents’ Day fun at HAT and Strelitz
Before the turkey was put in the oven and the potatoes mashed, Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Konikoff Center of Learning and Strelitz Early Childhood Education Center celebrated the time- honored tradition of Grandparents’ Day on Wednesday, Nov. 23. More than 160...
Entertaining the Holidays
Holidays, December 19, 2016
Avi Melamed offers perspective from the Middle East
The Middle East is a place where one plus one rarely equals two. Rather, it is a multifaceted and extraordinarily complicated region that has experienced escalated turbulence and dramatic change. To maneuver through this Middle East confusion, one almost needs a map....
It’s all new at Simon Family JCC Fitness Center
New is the word at the Simon Family JCC Fitness Center. “We’ve got new equipment, new weights, new paint, new flooring, new practically everything,” says Howard Roesen, chair Simon Family JCC fitness and wellness committee. Among the many improvements, the fitness...
CRC announces 5th annual Israel Poster Contest
The Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater invites local first through 12th graders to participate in its fifth annual Israel Poster Contest. A list of “cool facts” about Israel is available at www.JewishVA.org/...
24th annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film presented by Alma* & Howard Laderberg
For more information, visit www.simonfamilyjcc.org/filmfestival Saturday, January 14 | 7:30pm On the Map Doors Open at 6:45pm | Sandler Center for the Performing Arts | 201 Market Street, Virginia Beach Directed by Dani Menkin | 2016 | Israel | 85 min Against...
Washington, DC book festival pays tribute to Elie Wiesel
As Tidewater’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe* Family Jewish Book Festival was gearing up, the Lessans Family Annual Book Festival at the Bender JCC of Greater Washington was winding down. For its closing program on Sunday, Nov. 13, Jennifer Smith, director of arts and culture...
100 anti-Semitic incidents reported in US post-election, watchdog finds
One hundred anti-Semitic incidents occurred in the 10 days following the presidential election, representing about 12 percent of hate incidents in the U.S. recorded by a civil rights watchdog. The report by the Southern Poverty Law Center looked at 867 hate incidents...
Lee and Bernard Jaffe* Family Jewish Book Festival sponsors
The support of the sponsors of the 2012 Lee and Bernard Jaffe* Family Jewish Book Festival enabled the Simon Family JCC to present 12 authors and sell thousands of books. Business sponsors of this year’s festival were Barnes and Noble Booksellers, Monarch Bank,...
The proof is in the kugel
Some of the first thoughts that come to Americans’ minds when thinking about Israel are the Palestinian conflict, the threat of terrorism, and the treat of war with neighboring countries. While the reality of life in Israel, these issues do not define Israel or her...
Do you remember why you purchased one or more of your life insurance policies?
When we’re young adults, we most often purchase life insurance to pay off our mortgage or provide some surety that our spouse would have a sum of cash should we become deceased before we’ve had the opportunity to build our estates. Over the years, the initial purpose...
Getting through homework
Homework for elementary school children has fallen in and out of favor over the years. In the early 1900s, it was illegal in California for teachers to assign homework to young children who were instead expected to help on the farm or in the family business after...
Diverse speakers engage community in CRC’s Learn@Lunch Sessions
The concept behind the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Learn@Lunch series is to provide education opportunities on a variety of issues, in different places, during business lunch hours. “We were hearing from some members of...
Entertaining comedy from Performing Arts at the J
Comedian Dan Ahdoot, the first of three events at the Simon Family JCC in this season’s Performing Arts at the J, presented by Leah Wohl*, kept the jokes coming, pleasing adults of all ages on Saturday, Oct. 20. Susan Schwartzman, chairperson of the series, says the...
Fighting over every percentage point: Arguing about the Jewish vote and exit polls
WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Obama’s Jewish numbers are down, but by how much and why? Expect four more years of tussling between Jewish Republicans and Democrats about the meaning of Obama’s dip from 78 percent Jewish support cited in 2008 exit polls to 69 percent this...
As Obama takes second term, Israelis wonder what the future holds
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Most Israelis were asleep as the polls closed in America and voters waited for the results, but on one rooftop in central Tel Aviv a party with loud classic rock music and flashing lights was going strong. It was the pro-Obama election- watching party...
Maimonides Society learns about cross border disaster preparedness training
Dr. Lior Nesher, former head of the department of emergency medicine at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, spoke to the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Maimonides Society at the Sandler Family Campus last month. The event was sponsored by American Associates,...
Sunday Schools’ outing to Federation provides living history lesson
The number of hands thrust into the air at the end of Maly Jackson’s presentation about her childhood escape from Ethiopia was testimony to the power of her story. A dozen of the Sunday School students visiting the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater wanted to ask...
Road Scholars
That’s R-O-A-D not RHODE. It used to be “Elderhostel” programs, but apparently the connotation of “Elder” was a put-off to people under 90. So, it became “Road Scholar” programs—all over the country; all over the world—and in Baltimore. For us, it started with a call...
Presidential candidates’ Jewish surrogates debate in Virginia
FAIRFAX, Va. (JTA)—Prominent Jewish surrogates for President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney tackled domestic issues and foreign affairs during a cordial debate in Northern Virginia. Former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), representing Obama, faced off against...
Edward and Anne Kramer Create a Jewish Legacy and encourage others to do the same
After a seven-year courtship and 25 years of marriage, Ohef Sholom Temple board president, Ed Kramer, and his wife, Anne, exhibit a warmth and sense of humor with each other that extends outward, embracing everyone they come in contact with. It’s this warmth and humor...
The Mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyiim
D’var Torah delivered by Harry Graber, executive vice president, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater at the UJFT Annual Campaign kickoff Tonight, we will speak to the Mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyiim also known as the Redemption or Rescuing of the Captives. This will be...
AJC poll shows 65 percent of Jews supporting Obama
WASHINGTON (JTA)—A new American Jewish Committee poll found 65 percent of Jews nationwide planning to vote for President Obama and 24 percent for Mitt Romney, with another 10 percent undecided. The poll, conducted Sept. 6-17 among 1,040 Jewish voters nationwide, found...
Islamic leaders must call out hatemongers
NEW YORK (JTA)—In 1935, a trial was held in Bern, Switzerland, in which two individuals were being prosecuted for distributing the notorious anti-Semitic document The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. At the trial, witness after witness came forward testifying...
Jacob Moses Levy: Finding the “cool” in Jewish
Jake Levy is prepared for his freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. Beyond his clothing, his academic supplies and his dorm necessities, he is very clear about his Jewish identity. He declares without hesitation, “I love all things Jewish.” When he reflects...
Friends of Melton Alumni Association kick-off
The launching of the Friends of Melton/Alumni Association sets into place a plan for the future of the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School at the Simon Family JCC. Graduates, who have completed the first two years of the Mini-School, recently met to share ideas,...
Back to school time at Hebrew Academy and the Strelitz Early Childhood Center
It’s been an exhilarating few weeks since the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Konikoff Center of Learning and Strelitz Early Childhood Center preschool students returned to school on Aug. 27. Hallways and classrooms are bright and inviting, and students are now...
Meir Soloveichik vs. David Wolpe: Two rabbis, two parties, two political philosophies
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (JTA)—Republicans and Democrats may not have much common ground this election year, yet their national conventions shared one feature: Both gatherings were blessed from the podium by prominent American rabbis. The Democrats had Rabbi David Wolpe, a...