Other News

Collectors, family, friends, and mentors gathered from across the country—and globe—to honor artist Lorraine Fink during a reception celebrating Then, Now, & Looking Forward: Lorraine Fink Retrospective. The reception was held via Zoom on Sunday, Sept. 12. As a...

Farm to table has become accessible to Beth Sholom Village by way of a very futuristic-looking farm. The “farms” are in towers that resemble modern art sculptures. The crops can be seen in the beautiful six-foot case that emits a warm light and varying hues of green....

Tidewater families raising Jewish children will now have more opportunities to participate in Jewish life, thanks to a grant recently awarded to United Jewish Federation of Tidewater by PJ Library®, the flagship program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation that provides...

Forty families gathered by the pool at the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus to welcome Shabbat on Friday, August 27. Hosted by PJ Library in Tidewater, in partnership with United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Young Adult Division, the night began with pool games,...

On July 12, I hopped on a nine-and-a-half-hour plane ride with two of my best friends and 41 other teens to visit the land of Israel for 22 days. I always knew that visiting Israel would shift my perspective on being Jewish, but being able to experience that change...

Who would have thought 18 months ago, that we would still be speaking about COVID-19 as we approach another Jewish New Year? With our nation and world, we continue to combat the virus. But now we fight in a stronger position—with vaccinations—as we pivot daily and...

Elka Mednick As summer comes to a close and the High Holidays approach, annual concerns regarding conflicts between the academic calendar and the holidays are brought to the forefront. This year, the usual first day of school for public school students, the day after...

Compiled by Ronnie Jacobs Cohen, Shalom Tidewater Editor’s note: This listing is current as of Wednesday, August 18. Due to the evolving nature of COVID-19, it is advised to check with congregations to learn specific protocols for attending High Holiday Services,...

 Robin Ford As another potentially challenging school year is about to start, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Be a Reader (BeAR) program is gearing up for 2021–22. The program’s volunteers and staff hope to be able...

Thomas Mills Tidewater Jewish Foundation awarded a $7,500 Community Impact Grant in March to Toras Chaim to renovate their auditorium. Serving Tidewater’s Jewish community for almost 20 years, the school has undergone an extensive beautification project. Renovations...

Michelle Fenley Two special groups of Camp JCC campers demonstrated this summer that joy can be found through doing mitzvot. Despite the limitations that COVID‑19 placed on summer experiences, the two oldest groups of campers at the Simon Family JCC’s summer camp...

Earlier this summer, 14 members of the Simon Family Jewish Community Center participated in the Sprint 8 Cardio Challenge. “I wanted to challenge our members to change how they’re doing cardiovascular exercise with a clinically tested workout that provided real...

Judy Sacks Anderson In the summer of 1972 when I was only 17, my parents, Hal and Annabel Sacks, sent my 15-year-old brother, Skip and me to Israel on a sociology trip from Virginia Wesleyan College. We spent a good portion of the summer working on Kibbutz MishMarot...

Suzanne Barr In 1967, I heard about a United Jewish Appeal Young Leadership Mission to Israel from our friends, Mavolyn and Sonny Lefcoe. I was advised that it would be a hard trip, but I wanted to go anyway. After making some calls, I managed to get on the trip,...

Amy Zelenka I never get tired of saying that every Israel experience is special— each one meaningful in its own way. Whether it’s with a Birthright trip, bar or bat mitzvah, a Federation mission, or any other means of visiting—a trip to Israel is unique among all...

Steve Snyder In the summer of 1973, shortly after graduating from college, I went to Israel as a volunteer worker on Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet in Northern Israel. I was there from June 1973 to May 1974, working mainly on the assembly line of the Kibbutz orange crate...

Jennifer Zoberman While attending the University of Arizona in Tuscon, my parents paid for a European trip for me, but I said, “I must go to Israel to help.” So, we lost our trip money. It was not possible to fly to Israel from the U.S. due to the 1967 war, so I flew...

John Correll Over a three-day weekend in 1990 while on a job assignment in Cairo, Egypt, I decided to visit Israeli friends who lived in the Jewish settlement of Ariel. When the Egyptian taxi driver picked me up from my hotel, he was very talkative and friendly until...

“Running the Tel Aviv Half Marathon with your daughter—priceless Israel experience!!”

For more than 20 years, Richmond Ballet’s Minds In Motion program has brought students from all walks of life and from across Virginia, to the stage to share the joys of dance and performance. Nearly a decade ago, they traveled the program to Israel, and for the past...

Rob Goodman My 1965 summer in Israel was one of my most special. After a flight from Ankara to Tel Aviv, I hitched hiked to Tiberias and then up the road to Kibbutz Ginosar. It was Sabbath eve and they never turned anyone away on the Sabbath. I got up the next morning...

Friday, April 13, Ferguson Center for the Arts Saturday, April 14, Chrysler Hall Saturday, May 12, Sandler Center: Bernstein on Broadway Leonard Bernstein, Israel, and the Power of Music On September 17, 1948, at 30 years old, Leonard Bernstein boarded a plane bound...

This year the Young Adult Division of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater switched up their traditional Purim costume party for a ‘door to door’ or ‘bar to bar’ event at the Waterside District, letting the drinks flow for a progressive party. On Saturday,...

It was a spectacular experience at the Wyndham Garden in downtown Norfolk as an overflow crowd of 200 children and adults hosted by Chabad of Tidewater enjoyed Purim at the Circus featuring The Twins from France. The charming Brooklyn-based twins, Yisrael and Yacov...