Other News

David Proser, cantor at Kempsville Conservative Synagogue, Kehillat Bet Hamidrash, has recently been chosen to lead the Hampton Roads Board of Rabbis and Cantors as president. The organization’s mission, according to Proser, is to provide an opportunity for local...

Sharon Serbin recently joined Congregation Beth El as its new director of the Patricia Sarah Ashkenazi Religious School (PSARS). Serbin arrives in Tidewater from Pittsburgh, Pa., where she has worked in Jewish education for the past 30-plus years. An esteemed...

Previews began July 20 at the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles for the new play If I Forget, and a young actor with ties to Virginia Beach is playing the part of Joey. Jacob Zelonky, who has been in the Broadway tour of Billy Elliot, is one of three children of Barb...

(JTA)—Yair Lapid might only be Israel’s interim prime minister, but he appears to be determined to maximize the position in the four months he is guaranteed to occupy it. In a speech delivered Saturday, July 2, Lapid laid out a set of beliefs that he said bind...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Pam Scheininger and J. David Bleich have this much in common: They are Orthodox Jews who are preoccupied with Jewish ethics and teach at New York City law schools. But when Scheininger looks at an American map, she sees 16 states where Orthodox Jewish...

(JTA)—Agudath Israel of America, the national Orthodox Jewish organization for which I work, welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. Predictably, we were immediately cast into an “enemy” or “ally” box, depending on who was doing the casting. The...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Seattle-area football coach who lost his job after leading prayers on the field following his team’s victories, in a decision that could have ramifications for Jews in public schools and the military. A number of...

(JTA)—Brad Schneider knows from Chicagoland July 4 parades. The Jewish Democratic congressman has been working them since 2011, when he started running for his first term in Illinois’ 10th district. He packs five parades in on the day, and he can rattle off the...

A casual movie-goer until his mid-30s, Rabbi Michael Panitz, PhD, found that the invention of the VHS allowed him to enjoy films at home—and he began to study them. At the same time, he realized that films on Jewish subjects would be very useful in his work as a rabbi...

The Bonk-Rivin Holocaust Collection at Ohef Sholom Temple is managed by David Titus, a former college professor and academic librarian, and it is here that all corners of the Holocaust are explored. Titus has been a librarian for more than 45 years. He tells Jewish...

Third Mondays, 1:30 pm, Sandler Family Campus Simon Family Jewish Community Center’s Book Club has been active since it began in February 2008. When I was senior adult program coordinator for Jewish Family Service and Jewish Community Center, I recognized the need and...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—’Tis the season for so much news! In addition to another deadly attack on U.S. Jews, a much-anticipated British election and the announcement that Israel is going to have a third election in less than a year, President Trump issued an executive order...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—When I was about 19 years old, I took my first trip to Europe. I marveled at its beauty, its culture, its history and its architecture. On this trip and many others that followed, I shed many tears as I visited the numerous synagogues, Jewish museums,...

(JTA)—Mel Brooks’ new HBO special is a departure from the comedian’s typical belly-laugh fare. In place of the slapstick gallows humor—though there’s plenty of that, too, in Mel Brooks Unwrapped—is a more introspective, documentary-style reminiscence of his nearly...

Tidewater is fortunate to have so many great Hanukkah events taking place around town this year. Check some of them out here. Saturday, December 14 Ohef Sholom Temple OSTY Chanukah Party Sunday, Dec. 15, 11:30 Am–2:30 pm Simon Family JCC Latkapalooza A day filled with...

NEW YORK (JTA)—Here we go again: Just this month, two more cases of the abuse of Holocaust imagery have surfaced and created an international stir. In November, Russian figure skater Anton Shulepov wore an Auschwitz- themed costume during his free skating performance...

NEW YORK (JTA)—Sacha Baron Cohen has made a career out of playing absurd comedic characters, from the dopey Brit Ali G to the Kazakh journalist Borat to the Israeli veteran Erran Morad. He rarely gives interviews and stays relatively far from the movie star limelight....

On a beautiful night in September, more than 40 people gathered at the Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club to see old friends and make new ones. Some talked about children who recently celebrated their Bar or Bat Mitzvah, while others showed off pictures of infants. Everyone...

The Virginia Beach Police Department continued their commitment to “Never Again” by taking a group of 30 recruits to visit the Virginia Holocaust Museum on November 1, a trip they make twice a year. Organized by the Virginia Beach Law Enforcement Training Academy,...

Yoni Warren is a man of many titles. On Sunday, November 10, he merged them all in a pre-Veterans Day talk during a Men’s Club bagel brunch at Congregation Beth El. Rabbi Warren, a lieutenant and Navy chaplain, educated and entertained a crowd of congregants and...