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How to leverage giving opportunities at TJF

As the end of 2021 approaches, there’s a greater sense of normality: people are returning to society and the workplace. Yet, millions of people across the globe are still being impacted by COVID-19. Still, there is a silver lining: according to Giving USA 2021, a...

New novel, The Serpent Papers, focuses on Vietnam War

New novel, The Serpent Papers, focuses on Vietnam War

The Serpent Papers by Jeff Schnader, an area author and professor of medicine, is set on Columbia University’s campus amidst protests against the Vietnam War. This is the first book written about Columbia’s 1972 demonstrations. For the Vietnam War generation, the war...

All Jewish teens are invited to join BBYO

All Jewish teens are invited to join BBYO

  Tidewater BBYO invites all area Jewish teens to get involved. BBYO provides teens in eighth through 12th grades the opportunity to make friends, gain leadership experience, and have fun being Jewish. All BBYO programming is peer led: the teens plan and create...

Weddings 2021: Happy ever after, hitches and all

The 2020–21 wedding theme is a mix of Suspend Disbelief and Hello Fantastical. For three recently married couples, snookered by the pandemic and forced to alter their original dream wedding plans dramatically, getting the last laugh was extra sweet. Erin Leon and...

Bittersweet blessings for Paul Turok’s growing family

Paul Len Turok was born to count many blessings: Building a sweet life with Vivian (Viv); moving from South Africa to Virginia at just the right time; feeling embraced by the local Jewish community; raising two healthy children with good souls and great hair; and...

Elie Wiesel Competition’s 2021 winners now online

www.holocaustcommission.jewishva.org It took 25 years and a coronavirus to push the Elie Wiesel student competitions (art and writing) to their new online format. Since most public and many private school students spent their year in remote learning, the Holocaust...

Sunday Fun Day moves into fall

The new tradition of Sunday Fun Day continued this fall as PJ Library in Tidewater welcomed families to the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus of the Tidewater Jewish Community on September 12 for an afternoon of field games, music, and ice cream. Families with...

Choosing to lead at AIPAC Policy Conference 2018

Earlier this month I attended my sixth American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference. Once again, the conference exceeded my expectations, bringing community and student activists from all 50 states together to learn about and advocate for issues...

Big prizes, big fun at Beth El’s annual Ben Gordon Family Bingo Night

Four players went home Saturday night, Feb. 10, with large, smart TVs, including Cantor Elihu Flax, who beamed over his 55-inch television that marked the midpoint game of Congregation Beth El’s 19th annual Ben Gordon Family Bingo Night. But the TV winners and many...

Manicures and Mitzvahs highlights Dress for Success

Beth El Sisterhood hosted Manicures and Mitzvahs at Changes Salon Thursday, Feb. 8 in support of Dress for Success. Twenty women enjoyed pampering, socializing, and a delicious food spread. Francesca Litow says it was a “Wonderful opportunity to pamper ourselves,...

Teens bond with seniors in Better Together Program

Though Leia Morrissey is in eighth grade, she knows she can make friends with anyone at any age. It’s a skill she picked up by participating in Better Together, a program that brings teens from area synagogues together with seniors at Beth Sholom Village. Now in its...

Gefilte fish and the bathtub

One of my favorite memories of Passover is hearing my grandfather tell stories about how his mother used to make the gefilte fish. I assumed like all families that they just went to the store and bought theirs. He explained to me that on the morning of Passover my...

Making it fun and meaningful for the younger generation

Every year I am reminded of the enthusiastic and spirited seders we had in South Africa with our extended family. Most of these family members are now dispersed around the world. We have five grandsons for whom I create fun and meaningful seders. This includes...

Our burnt Haggadah, gefilte fish that attracted neighbors, and puppets

My family has incorporated different Haggadot versions over the years, but we are always sure to use my Grandpa Jack’s original Haggadah, which has a burnt cover from when he nodded off during the seder and accidentally singed the book edges in the table candles. I...

A Great Passover Memory

Only one?? Impossible! I have so many great Passover memories because it has always been my favorite holiday, starting as a child sitting around my Aunt Florence’s dining room table in Baltimore with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins on my father’s side. I can’t...

Kibbutz seders were fun!

Every year for Passover, my family would drive 90 minutes to attend a seder at my aunt and uncle’s kibbutz. They lived on Kibbutz Beth Alpha, near Jordan, and we lived in Haifa. Hundreds of people attended, filling many long tables. The kibbutz created their own...

Grants available for first time campers to Jewish overnight camps

Elijah Arnowitz is a seventh grader who is already dreaming about camp this summer, which will be his fifth, at Camp Ramah New England. “It’s torturous to think about it because I miss it so much!” Elijah says. What does he like about camp? “Bunk activities, Shabbat...

A national audience for What We Carry

Close to 200 people interested in seeing the three newest films of survivor Alfred Dreyfus, liberator William Jucksch, and rescuer Dame Mary Barraco, attended a screening last December at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. These first-hand...

Aaron David Miller discusses the future of the Middle East

For Aaron David Miller, any opportunity to get out of Washington is appreciated, but on Monday, Feb. 12, the treat was for the Tidewater Jewish community. In a packed room, Miller, the vice president of New Initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for...

A Letter to My Campers After Parkland

This post was originally published in Bossier Magazine, and on the Religious Action Center’s and Union for Reform Judaism’s blogs. It is republished here with the author’s permission. To: G4A, G3B, the Tsofim unit, and all of URJ Camp Coleman: After 17 people were...

VCIC to honor William L. Nusbaum with Humanitarian Award

Thursday, March 22, 5:45 pm The Westin, Virginia Beach Town Center The Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities has selected William L. Nusbaum to receive a prestigious Humanitarian Award at their 54th annual dinner this month. The Tidewater chapter of VCIC will...

Last call for Israel stories

As you’ve probably heard by now, Israel turns 70 years old in April. To commemorate this milestone, the April 9 issue of Jewish News will feature all things Israel, including articles about the tiny nation’s beginning, it’s technological, medical, agricultural, and...

February is National Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion month

Dedicated to offering programs throughout the year that raise awareness and bring people with disabilities, their families, and those who love them, into their Jewish communities in meaningful ways, for Jewish Family Service of Tidewater, National Jewish Disability...