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Thursday, March 30, 6:30 pm, Westin Virginia Beach Town Center Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities’ 2023 honorees for the 59th Annual Humanitarian Award include Andrew S. Nusbaum. Humanitarian Awards are presented to individuals who have demonstrated a...
It’s time to gather family and friends for Pesach and join in a moment of reflection…to take stock of values and hold fast to what’s most important in the coming days, weeks, and months. At Tidewater Jewish Foundation, we are doing just that. When we think about the...
We recently had the chance to lead Tu B’Shevat and Purim activities around the community. It was a pleasure to participate in the region’s many festivities and share our experiences from celebrating these holidays in Israel with people of all ages. We’ve...
Recently published, To Life: The Past is Present: Holocaust Stories of Hampton Roads Survivors, Liberators and Rescuers, is the book’s second edition. This anthology contains recollections of ghetto and concentration camp survivors, hidden children, Jews on the...
More than 100 Brith Sholom members gathered at the Simon Family JCC on Sunday, Feb. 5, to learn the results of the 2022–2024 election. The newly elected officers are President, Dave Lesser; Vice President, Ray Rebby; Treasurer, Joe Goldberg; Secretary, Ed Landress....
Jewish News: When and where did you meet? Joan and Eric Joffe: We met on the beach in Clifton, a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa in December 1968. JN: What was most memorable about your wedding? J&E: Our wedding on April 10, 1973 was during the time of...
Jewish News: You are both Tidewater natives. When and where did you meet? Stephanie Jarvis Caskill and Tyler Caskill: We met in 2011 at a mutual friend’s house. JN: What was most memorable about your wedding? S&T: Having so many of our friends and family...
Jewish News: When and where did you meet? Sarah and Bill Keasey: We met online May 5, 2008 on Bikerkiss.com. We both had Harleys. JN: What was most memorable about your ceremony? S&B: The most memorable was to have our wonderful family and friends surround us. JN:...
In August, Pam Gladstone, executive director for Congregation Beth El, turns 80. For more than three of her nearly nine decades, congregants, vendors, and visitors to Beth El have been accustomed to Pam’s friendly greeting at the sanctuary’s door or on the phone....
Two members of the leadership team at Beth Sholom Village were recently recognized with promotions, new designations earned, and for their community-wide work. Mazel Tov Lauren Schoenfeld and Amy Weinstein! Lauren Schoenfeld, LNHA The new administrator of the...
Artist Jean-Pierre Weill recently spoke to Alene Jo Kaufman of KBH Synagogue about his book, Evolve: A Children’s Book for Adults as part of the Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival. The conversation took place on Zoom. Weill, a father of five who was...
The Swordfish winter youth swim team may have been small, but they accomplished big things. Lead by coaches Leia Sabatini and Kayleigh Carnazza, the Swordfish broke 14 team records this season. During their three swim meets, Sawyer White, 9 years old, set three new...
(JTA) President-elect Joe Biden filled the months before Inauguration Day lining up a slate of Cabinet secretaries, assistants and advisors, many of them Jewish. Biden’s choices reflect a diverse cross-section of American Jewry and possess expertise gleaned from...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—There are 37 Jewish members of the 117th Congress, which was sworn in earlier this month amid the trauma of an insurrection spurred by President Donald Trump. Of the 37, there are 10 in the Senate and 27 in the House of Representatives—25 Democrats...
Hanukkah around the world together Beth El celebrated Hanukkah each night with collective candle lighting, singing, and sharing that took the congregation around the world and back again. Several members grew up in other countries and shared stories and childhood...
When most people hear the word ‘Hadassah,’ chances are they think of a hospital in Israel. In actuality, Hadassah is so much more. Hadassah’s mission statement describes itself as “a volunteer organization that inspires a passion for and commitment to the land, the...
While the wait for a safe vaccine for all looms large, the range of reactions to COVID-19 is as diverse as the people whose lives are affected. Some seniors in the community have lived in Tidewater all their lives. They’re married with children and grandchildren and...
Prue Salasky spent six months of a 10-month teaching assignment in Bulgaria through the U.S. Fulbright program. Her Balkan adventure, including plans to visit Istanbul, Kiev, Odessa, and Israel, was cut short when Fulbright canceled all its programs worldwide due to...
Women’s American ORT, Organization for Rehabilitation and Training, has always been an educational and vocational game changer for students in the U.S. and around the world. Lifelong volunteer Sara Trub has been ORT-immersed for 48 years. An e-mail she received from a...
Each year the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater sponsors the Elie Wiesel Visual Arts Competition. Hundreds of student artists from Tidewater, as well as nationally, create works of art that respond to various topics and guidelines which...
One year ago, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) released a groundbreaking piece of research—the first-ever survey of American Jews on anti-Semitism in America. Released on the first anniversary of the deadly Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the worst anti-Semitic...
When the COVID-19 pandemic started breaking out across the United States, Pam Blais began receiving a slew of phone calls. A former 18-year-emergency department registered nurse, Blais had countless friends and co-workers that were suddenly thrust to the frontlines...
Now in its 11th year, the Stein Family College Scholarship will begin accepting applications on December 1, 2020 for the 2021-2022 academic year. The annual grant for Jewish students in Tidewater provides a scholarship of up to $10,000 a year for college tuition. The...
Freda H. Gordon Hospice & Palliative Care Celebrates November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month Throughout November, Freda H. Gordon Hospice & Palliative Care joined organizations across the nation hosting community activities in recognition of...
Rabbi Batya Glazer has been building relationships between the Jewish community and representatives of faith and ethnic communities through dialogue, working in coalition, and educational programming for years. She says she finds these relationships to be “an...
Not many people (if any) have fields to harvest or vineyards to glean, but as Jews, can still perform the mitzvah of Pe’ah by feeding the hungry—and Temple Israel does, generously and often, in gifts to Mazon, the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, and its annual High Holy...
Kehillat Bet Hamidrash, Kempsville Conservative Synagogue, also known as KBH, is a small, do-it-yourself Conservative Synagogue. Its modest building is home to 60 plus family units. Throughout the pandemic, the leadership has faced many of the same challenges as the...
We are thrilled to bring the Florence Melton School of Adult Learning back to Tidewater as part of the Konikoff Center for Learning. Over the past year, I have spoken to many Melton graduates who had wonderful things to say about their time with the mini-school when...
Women from Tidewater and beyond gathered on Thursday, November 5 on Zoom for the 6th Annual Great Big Challah Bake. Part of the global Shabbos Project, the local event was a collaboration between B’nai Israel Congregation and the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater....
The holiday season may be difficult this year with the pandemic altering many family plans and traditions. Navigating the challenges will most likely take more patience and flexibility than usual. For those facing their first holiday season without a loved one, this...
(JTA)—Nearly half of Americans don’t know what the phrase “anti-Semitism” means. That’s one takeaway from two surveys published last month by the American Jewish Committee. The surveys asked Jews and the general American public about anti-Semitism in the United...
Following the expansion and restructuring of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces’ (FIDF) executive office and welcoming Steven Weil as the new national director and CEO in mid-September, FIDF has formed the new Eastern Region. Seth Baron, who for the past seven...