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...

We buried my dad in March. I didn’t know that we buried a piece of Mom too. Sylva was always elegant—in that Grace Kelly way. Not sexy like Sophia Loren…but always coiffed, polite, and ironed. All things her three daughters rebelled against, but loved about her. I...

WASHINGTON (JTA)—More than eight in 10 American Jews say that anti-Semitism has spiked in recent years and even more believe it is a problem in the United States, according to an American Jewish Committee survey. Nearly three-quarters of respondents strongly...

(JTA)—The close of every year brings with it bittersweet reminders of the incredible figures we lost in the year that was. This year the task of remembering the departed is particularly fraught as 12 people on the list were lost to acts of anti-Jewish violence in U.S....

With active mass shootings and anti-Semitism on the rise, local Jewish leaders can’t be too pro-active. Security and risk assessment actions taken by various synagogues and the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus reflect the reality that heightened fear is the new...

Compiled by Carly Glikman for Shalom Tidewater Beth Sholom Village bethsholomvillage.com | 757-420-2512 Rosh Hashanah Sunday, September 29 Evening Services • 6:30 pm Monday, September 30 Morning Services • 10 am Tashlich (Terrace Pond) • 4 pm Evening Servicea • 6:30...

After reaching capacity this summer, the Strelitz International Academy will open a new class for two-year-olds in January 2020. Once that class is filled, incoming students will have to wait until the June summer camp registration. SIA classes fill up quickly due to...

Education, and particularly Jewish education, has been the focus of Sierra Lautman’s professional life for years. Lautman and her family recently moved to Virginia Beach from Pittsburgh, where she was the Religious School director at Adat Shalom Synagogue. Before...

United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s new Arts + Ideas manager, Patty Shelanski, is no stranger to Tidewater. Shelanski and her husband, Herm, recently returned to Norfolk after five years in Washington, DC, and she says, “we are so happy to be back in this...

Wandering through the heart of Budapest, it is easy to stumble across Liberty Square. Entering the Park from the South, you are immediately confronted with a monument for “Victims of the German Occupation of 1944.” Hungary, represented by a helpless angel Gabriel, is...

In 1938, Joseph Fleischmann, along with his mother, Ida, and sister, Rachel, fled Nuremberg, Germany. It was the end of a cold November, just weeks after a period of devastating violence known as Kristallnact or Night of Broken Glass. Members of Fleischmann’s family,...

The young men’s giving circle through UJFT’s Young Adult Division, Nadiv, finished its third year of existence with banner fundraising. Members of the group—Jewish men in their 20s, 30s and 40s—donated $1,500 to One Happy Camper, a program implemented by Tidewater...

Faces light up when Gabrielle Exum, art therapist, walks around Beth Sholom Village carrying foster kittens. As part of her work, she began fostering the kitties, not just to help them find permanent homes, but also to engage with residents looking for something to...

Art at home For some people, art is décor—either purchased at an art show or gallery or chosen by an interior designer. For others, though, art is personal because it is their own creation. Jewish News spoke with several area artists to learn a little about their...

Better Together is a partnership program that connects teens with seniors for mutual enrichment and bonding opportunities. Throughout this past year, participating teens from Ohef Sholom Temple, Congregation Beth El, and Temple Israel spent Sundays eating lunch and...

Counseling and social work services will be available for Toras Chaim Day School students when the school year begins. Jewish Family Service of Tidewater (JFS) will provide these in-school services. For the past 25 years, JFS has established a solid and positive...

The Chinese have a saying about living in interesting times. In Israel’s case, I would say that is true on a regular basis, but somehow at the moment, this is true throughout the world. More importantly, in my view, currently these are also some of the most difficult...