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A packed house of Strelitz International Academy parents watched their children perform on stage, many for the first time, on Thursday, March 24. After two years of COVID mitigations, including no family programs or performances, SIA’s Evening of the Arts: How...
The following letter was sent to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and others earlier this month to highlight the fact that there has never been a Jewish judge on the Virginia Supreme Court. April 13, 2022 The Honorable Glenn Youngkin Governor Office of the Governor...
Stella Kremen emigrated from Ukraine in 1994 to Tidewater with her husband, two boys, and her parents. Her children attended Hebrew Academy of Tidewater. Kremen’s brother stayed behind in Ukraine. Kremen shares the following Instagram post from her niece, Karyna who...
The first “Dive in Movie” in the Simon Family JCC indoor pool took place on Saturday, March 26 with 20 Tidewater middle schoolers and teens attending. The event was hosted by Camp JCC in collaboration with Camp Sababa Beachaway, a Jewish sleepaway camp in Virginia...
More than 60 people attended S’more Fun, a collaborative event presented by Camp JCC and Camp Sababa Beachaway on Sunday afternoon, March 27. Families enjoyed crafts, s’mores over a fire pit, and kosher pizza for dinner while children played gaga and other camp games...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Senate, in a voice vote, unanimously confirmed Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust scholar who endured delays and a contentious hearing in her nomination to be antisemitism monitor. The vote late Wednesday, March 30 took mere seconds. “The ayes appear...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Joe Biden wants to increase federal funding for security for nonprofits from $250 million to $360 million, a key request advanced by Jewish organizations in the wake of attacks on Jewish institutions. Biden included the funding in the...
(JTA)—Of all the issues facing Israel—violence within the country, how to handle Russia’s war on Ukraine, Iran—the one that appears to have put the country’s delicate governing coalition at risk could appear picayune. When Idit Silman, a member of Knesset from the...
When driving up to Congregation Beth El, a group of homeless people are frequently seen across the street at New Life Church waiting to get in to have a meal. Riding down Colonial Avenue, an old woman might be seen pushing a grocery cart with all her belongings in it,...
Falling in the spring, as it does each year, Passover is a great time to take advantage of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially after enjoying delicious soups and stews during the chillier winter months. Springtime and Passover and asparagus seem to all meet at the...
Recently announced by Tidewater Jewish Foundation and the Feldman Family, The Feldman Family Medical and Health Professions Scholarship Fund is an annual scholarship that will award up to $10,000 a year to Jewish students living in Virginia—with priority given to...
Kindra Mosher, a new media specialist at Norview Middle School, is serious about students learning Holocaust history. A transplant from upstate New York, where Elie Wiesel’s Night was required eighth grade reading, Mosher loves offering students the books that United...
Congresswoman Elaine Luria was Ohef Sholom Temple’s guest speaker for Armed Forces Shabbat on Friday, May 17. She spoke of her experience commanding combatant ships in the Navy, and how this, along with her strong Jewish upbringing, led her to her current position...
Outsmart Your Pain! The Essential Guide to Overcoming Pain and Transforming Your Life Lisa Barr, MD Illustrations by Tim Sovine Synergy Health Quest, LLC, 2018 ISBN 13: 978-1-7320011-0-7 In the opening pages of Outsmart Your Pain!, Lisa Barr, MD, says, “The science of...
Growing up in Toronto, I could have seemed like an ordinary kid. But there was something that made me sharply stand out. I stuttered. A lot. It began when I was three years old. My parents were told to ignore it—as “merely a stage in a child’s speech development,”...
Elie Wiesel poignantly stated, “to forget the Holocaust is to kill twice.” Thus, “we must bear witness [for] the living and the dead.” As Lisa Bertini, Holocaust Commission chair, said at the annual Yom Hashoah commemoration on May 1 at Temple Israel, “…for the...
New to Tidewater? Lived here all your life, but are looking to get more involved? The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater would like to offer a special welcome. Through Shalom Tidewater, Carly Glikman, outreach manager, personally delivers welcome information and...
The new director of philanthropy at Beth Sholom Village is familiar to many people in the Hampton Roads Jewish community. Amy Weinstein spent six years at United Jewish Federation of Tidewater as director of the Young Adult Division, then two years as director of...
(JTA)—Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein said his Chabad of Poway could not afford to hire an armed guard. Had it been able, or if the government had helped the synagogue bring in one, he believes the deadly attack there Saturday, April 27 could have been averted. “If I had the...
The New York Times editorial board said in an editorial published Tuesday, April 30, that the newspaper’s publishing of “an appalling political cartoon” is “evidence of a profound danger—not only of anti-Semitism but of numbness to its creep.” The newspaper also...
Fourth and fifth grade students at Hebrew Academy of Tidewater spent myriad hours of study and planning to prepare for the school’s recent Science Fair, the capstone of weeks of hard work. Almost 100 visitors attended this year, along with HAT’s familiar and dedicated...
(JTA)—After the smoke clears from this contentious Israeli election, which amounted to a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure, the question remains: How did he win again? As Israel’s former U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren said, “Our economy is...
On Monday, March 18, the Simon Family JCC celebrated the JCC Book Club’s 10th anniversary and 100th read with book club author, Marilyn Simon Rothstein. Rothstein visited the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus as a part of her Jewish Book Council book tour and the Lee...
Members of the Tidewater Chavurah got together at Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill and Spencer Gill’s home to bake Hamantashen in preparation for Purim. A variety of fillings were used including lemon, poppy, apple, blueberry, pumpkin, and chocolate. A multi-generational event,...
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation recently added several objects of Judaica to its collections: a sterling silver and gold Kiddush cup and a silver and gold yad (Torah pointer). These mark the first such objects in the Foundation’s holdings and reflect the...
Jewish Family Service of Tidewater recently received a grant to work in collaboration with Simon Family JCC to develop a fully inclusive after-school program. The grant supports the initial development and implementation of inclusive programming for children with...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)—Like many voters in democratic national elections, I almost always hope that whoever is elected will be able to serve out their full term—even if they weren’t my pick. This is especially true in my native Israel, whose infamously brittle coalitions...
A personal trainer for 16 years, Simon Family JCC trainer Susan Vann-Spruill says it is important for gym members to approach fitness with a plan. Without one, she says, the results are often minimal or worse. “Many people come to the gym regularly without a real plan...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—It looks like Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating alleged improprieties associated with Donald Trump’s presidency and election campaign, is wrapping up his report. Or maybe not. Mueller has over his near-two-year run led a leak-free...
Imagine a kitchen filled with three groups of teenagers hard at work baking chocolate chip cookies. Imagine they are Jewish teens from across Tidewater, representing a wide variety of schools and cities. And then, imagine they are baking cookies for others. Stop...
A component of many medical conditions, pain is complex. It is not just one thing—and the process of teasing out the one core issue at the root of the pain is challenging. In the first half of Outsmart Your Pain!, Lisa Barr, MD, reveals how stress and pain can become...
(JTA)— Al Vorspan, who helped organize the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and served as the longtime director of the Commission on Social Action, has died. Vorspan, who also was former senior vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism, died on Saturday,...