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BBYO International Convention 2017 and Eastern Region’s Spring Convention served as dynamic meeting places and real-world classrooms to provide teen leaders opportunities for shared leadership resources and new skills to help change the world. The record-breaking...
Jewish defense groups urged Congress to preserve the State Department’s anti-Semitism monitor. Representatives of the Anti- Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Secure Community Network testified Wednesday, March 22...
More than 100 leaflets with hand-drawn swastikas were found dropped on the front yard of the Chabad Jewish student center at Virginia Tech. The leaflets were discovered at the student center located across the street from the Blacksburg university on Saturday, March...
Jewish groups offered varied reactions, including disappointment, tepid congratulations and enthusiasm, to the confirmation of David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel. On Thursday, March 23, the U.S Senate confirmed Friedman, a longtime lawyer of President Donald...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Trump administration will not allow a repeat of last year’s United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its settlements, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told AIPAC. “Never again do what we saw with resolution 2334 and make anyone...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—“Many voices, one mission.” If AIPAC’s 2017 annual policy conference slogan, popping up on the conference app on activists’ smartphones, isn’t clear enough, the morning pick-me-up video it runs before conference business begins is pretty...
Organizations targeted by recent bomb threats and other U.S. Jewish groups welcomed news of the arrest of a suspect—an Israeli with American citizenship who reportedly is Jewish. The Anti-Defamation League, whose headquarters in New York and at least three satellite...
Col. Edward Shames, pictured here with his letter of commendation from the Virginia General Assembly, was so honored on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Shames, a member of the legendary “Band of Brothers,” brought more of his men home than any other American...
Poised and charming and offering insightful discussions, Jessica Fechtor, a guest author and speaker for the Beyond the Book Festival, established immediate rapport with her audience while reading from her book, Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me...
Beginning with a pop and a fizz, the Society of Professional’s Pour wine event gathered local Jewish professionals and friends at the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront on Sunday, March 5. Overlooking the ocean, participants were led through progressive Kosher food and...
April 13, 2007 At the recent B’nai B’rith Youth Organization’s International Convention held in Houston, Texas, Virginia Council BBYO received an International Programming Award for the Lost Boys of the Sundan program held last fall. April 11, 1997 In an article by...
April 3, 2017, Passover Section
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...
NEW YORK (JTA)—We have a love-hate relationship with boundaries. We hate being confined or told what to do. Boundaries limit our individuality, intrude upon what we want to do and sometimes feel like an arbitrary obstacle to getting what we want. For children, limits...
The Beth El Religious School’s eighth and ninth graders listened to Ethiopian refugee Maly Jackson tell her remarkable story on Sunday, Feb. 3. Ethiopian Jews are descended from King Solomon and practice biblical Judaism, which means they do not celebrate Chanukah or...
March is Social Work Month, a time when Jewish Family Service of Tidewater recognizes and salutes its social workers and case managers. The profession of hope—fueled by resilience and advocacy, social workers daily help millions of struggling people dream differently....
Morgan Morrison is a first-year academic advisor for students in the College of Arts & Letters at Old Dominion University. She gave birth to her first child, daughter Chloe, in April 2012. She remembers how tough it was when deciding what to do for childcare. “I...
After years of repression eroded all signs of Jewish life, one organization stepped in after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and recreated a dynamic educational network that spans nine countries, includes 56 projects in 38 locations and serves more than...
If the smiling faces and warm greetings of B’nai Israel Congregation members weren’t enough to make guests feel welcome at a movie screening held at the shul on Monday, Feb. 18, the sight and smell of bags filled with freshly made popcorn convinced moviegoers they...
A team from Temple Israel spent an afternoon volunteering at the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia on Monday, Jan. 21. After a brief introduction and instructional video, the group, which ranged in age from 13 to 75, assisted with quality assurance by assessing...
Rabbi Arthur Ruberg delivered this Shabbat sermon at Congregation Beth El on Feb. 15, 2013 This has been an eventful week in the life of our country and in the world. There are so many topics I could address today. Of those, I’ve decided to talk about the Pope. Maybe...
The matinee showing of Six Million and One brought a crowd of more than 200 to view a moving documentary about the struggle of the second generation after the Holocaust, children of survivors, who cope with the emotional legacy of their parents’ suffering. Pete...
NEW YORK (JTA)—One of the proudest moments of Ed Koch’s life came during a trip to Israel in 1990, in the midst of the first Palestinian intifada. Koch had recently left City Hall after 12 years as mayor of New York City and was touring Jerusalem when a Palestinian...
A little known fact is that Old Dominion University (ODU) sponsors a Jewish book club. What makes this Jewish Writers’ Book Club unique is that it is often facilitated by ODU professors, focuses largely on writings by women authors, and at times meets with the...
In its 20th year, Jewish Family Service’s Chanukah Gift Program asked the community to contribute gifts, gift cards, and money during this past Chanukah holiday to help local Jewish families in need. JFS received donations from individuals, families, groups,...