State elections take center stage. Drew Goodove, JCRC Summer Intern All seats in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate are up for grabs on Tuesday, November 7. With so many vital issues, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish...
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Biden expands Civil Rights Act protections at 8 cabinet departments to include antisemitism
Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration is aiming to counter antisemitic discrimination in federally-funded transit systems, housing, food programs, and other areas — one of the most major actions the White House has taken since it unveiled a...
John Cooper
Area attorneys: Committed to their work, family, and communities Firm Cooper Hurley Injury Lawyers The Car Crash Experts Specialty Personal Injury – Helping folks hurt in wrecks against insurance companies. Education University of California Berkeley, Phi Beta Kappa...
Clay Macon
Area attorneys: Committed to their work, family, and communities Firm Glasser & Macon PC Specialty Real Estate, Estates, Corporations, Civil Litigation Education University of Virginia, BS University of Virginia, JD Jewish organizations and involvement Ohef Sholom...
Steve Leon
Area attorneys: Committed to their work, family, and communities Firm Cooper, Spong & Davis, P.C. Specialty Creditor’s Rights, Collection law, Credit Union law Education University of Virginia Cumberland School of Law Jewish organizations and involvement I have...
Terry Tessler
Area attorneys: Committed to their work, family, and communities Firm Virginia Indigent Defense Commission Norfolk Public Defender’s Office Specialty Criminal Law Education University of Miami University of Florida, JD Jewish organizations and involvement: I have...
Deborah Casey named to Virginia’s Common Interest Community Board
Governor Glenn Youngkin announced several administration and board appointments on Friday, Sept. 29. Among them, Debbie Casey, Wood Rogers Vandeventer Black principal and vice chair, was appointed to Virginia’s Common Interest Community Board. The board regulates...
Jeffrey Brooke elected chairman of Norfolk Economic Development Authority
Terri Denison Last month, Jeffrey F. Brooke was elected chairman of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority. A member of Norfolk’s EDA since 2019, Brooke says he initially volunteered on this citizen’s board “because I was born and raised in Norfolk and have a real...
OSTY’s food drive replenishes food pantry shelves
Robyn Weiner The High Holiday food drive at Ohef Sholom Temple is as much a part of the high holidays as Avinu Malkeinu. Each year, the synagogue’s youth group, OSTY (Ohef Sholom Temple Youth), organizes a food drive to benefit OST’s own soup kitchen and Jewish Family...
Unetaneh Tokef, the High Holidays’ roll call of ruin, is heartbreakingly real for the Ukrainian Jews I’ve gotten to know
Alex Weisler (JTA) — A catalog of calamities is central to the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We Jews are asked to imagine ourselves perched on the precipice of life and death. Nothing frames it as starkly as Unetaneh Tokef, the roll call of ruin enumerating...
Five-year calendar highlights Jewish holidays
Stephanie Peck Each summer, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater submits a five-year, Jewish holiday calendar to area school districts, arts leaders, elected officials, and similar public and private institutions which...
Strelitz International Academy is back to school
Ally St. Pierre A reimagined entryway with a beautiful IB®-themed mural and new toddler classrooms helped contribute to the excitement as Strelitz International Academy welcomed the new school year with open arms and smiling faces on Monday, August 21. Three days...
A stitch in time brings happiness to others
The quilters at Ohef Sholom Temple are all about creating beautiful designs that bring joy and provide a rewarding sense of community. Marsha Moody says it’s fun, creative, and meaningful. “I’ve always loved fabric,” Moody says. “When we lived in Charlottesville in...
Indian River High School honors the memory of Holocaust survivors
In the first semester of the 2021–22 school year, I taught my Virginia and U.S. History classes about the Holocaust and mentioned the local survivors and rescuers who had graciously shared their stories with former Indian River High School students in the past. I...
New director of Lifelong Learning at Ohef Sholom
Many congregants and families at Ohef Sholom Temple already know its new director of Lifelong Learning, Alyson Morrissey. There are several reasons that Morrissey is well known around the temple. A beloved Jewish educator, Morrissey has taught in OST’s Religious and...
Progress continues on Marty Einhorn Pavilion
Exciting things are happening as construction on the Marty Einhorn Pavilion at the Sandler Family Campus continues to move forward. The concrete is in, the ceiling fans are on site, and the LED color-changing lights have just been installed. Named in memory of Marty...
Tidewater Ukraine Emergency Fund raises more than $675,000
As the war rages on in Ukraine, Jewish Tidewater has continued to give to the Tidewater Ukraine Emergency Fund. The fund has now raised and distributed approximately $678,000 to help the people of Ukraine via United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s overseas partners,...
Breyer fears Supreme Court ruling in Maine school case could lead to broad funding for religious schools
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Maine parents seeking funding to send their children to religious schools, a development that a dissenting Jewish justice, Stephen Breyer, suggested could open the door to broad public funding of parochial...
Simon Family Passport: Yael Schranz spends gap year in Israel
It’s been almost a month, and it feels like I just left yesterday. You know the experience was especially amazing when it is so difficult to move on from it. I went to Israel on a gap year known as Young Judaea Year Course. First, I lived in Jerusalem taking classes...
JFiT director makes it to Final 8 in national “Top Trainer” contest
On a particularly sunny morning in late April, between Life Fit and Stretch classes he teaches at the Simon Family JCC’s JFiT Wellness Center, an email caught Tom Purcell’s eye. The message was an inquiry about submitting for the opportunity to be named “Mr. Muscle...
Children’s story gets passed from generation to generation
The Tsigala Story told to Abbot Granoff, MD, by his paternal grandfather Morris Granoff (Pa) ignited a curiosity about his family’s history. In addition to spending time in Ukraine, the Granoff family story is a tale of travel, perseverance, and creativity. Here is...
New Children’s Pavilion at CHKD serves the community’s pediatric mental health needs
Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters opened its new $224 million, 14-story Children’s Pavilion on April 25. The facility offers a wide array of outpatient psychiatric services that include pediatric psychiatrists, psychologists, nurse practitioners, mental...
Insight-centered approach to mental health: An interview with Dr. Michael Weissman
Judging by the waiting list of more than 400 people for Dr. Michael S. Weissman, Ph.D.’s outpatient practice, you would think there is a heightened need for mental health services today, and you would be exactly right. According to the Chesapeake and Norfolk-based...
JFS: “Perfect storm” sees heightened need for mental health counseling
Think about it: the world went through a pandemic, a lockdown, reintegration, new variants, social isolation, and financial uncertainty. Why wouldn’t anxiety be at an all-time high? “The level of stress has exploded,” says Debra Mayer, LCSW, CT director of clinical...
A pain management approach to long-haul COVID, gut issues, and what to know about medical marijuana
Staying on top of current research in pain management is very important to Dr. Lisa Barr, who has more than 30 years of experience as a board-certified physician treating patients in Tidewater with muscle, nerve, and joint problems related to sports injuries and...
Special tour of yads exhibit at the Chrysler organized by UJFT
Enthusiasts of the Jewish Art Education classes offered by the Konikoff Center for Learning at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and other members of the Simon Family JCC, joined Clay Barr for a private tour of The Guiding Hand: The Barr Foundation Collection...
Strelitz International Academy students celebrate Shavuot with a Mitzvah Fair
Primary Years students at Strelitz International Academy had excitement in their eyes as they entered the room for the Shavuot Mitzvah Fair on Friday, June 3. Richard Glasser’s family dedicated the unique holiday celebration in his memory. His brother Michael,...
ShinShinim are coming to Tidewater
Aya Sever of Kefar Sava, located 15 miles north of Tel Aviv, and Alma Ben Chorin, of Hertzliya, will fly into Norfolk this August to live in Tidewater through summer 2023. Both 18, Sever and Chorin are two of the 200 Israeli high school graduates that are among...
Sandy Koufax honored with a statue at Dodger Stadium
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—For Jewish sports fans around the world, Sandy Koufax has for decades occupied an unmatched legendary status. Now, 57 years after the Hall of Fame pitcher sat out a World Series game to observe Yom Kippur, Koufax has officially been immortalized with...
I left Israel to give my kids the American dream. Is this it?
On the day when the shooting happens, I finally unlock what some say is the most vital part of the American dream. My husband and I have a house in the suburbs now, big trees towering above —no picket fence, but a wide expanse of green and room for the pattering of...
Junior’s, NYC’s iconic Jewish cheesecake emporium, buys back guns to protect the city it loves
(New York Jewish Week)—When Alan Rosen, the third-generation owner of Junior’s Restaurant, read the headlines back in April about a 12-year-old Brooklyn boy who was shot and killed while eating in the backseat of a car, the only thing he could think was, “enough...
A new podcast chronicles the little-known stories of boxers from the Holocaust era
(JTA)—In the early 1930s, Victor Perez was on top of the world. The Tunisian Jewish boxer, who fought under the ring name “Young Perez,” became the World Flyweight Champion in 1931 and 1932 after moving from Tunis to Paris. He became a bona fide celebrity, dating...