While the wait for a safe vaccine for all looms large, the range of reactions to COVID-19 is as diverse as the people whose lives are affected. Some seniors in the community have lived in Tidewater all their lives. They’re married with children and grandchildren and...
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Reflections on a sojourn in Bulgaria
Prue Salasky spent six months of a 10-month teaching assignment in Bulgaria through the U.S. Fulbright program. Her Balkan adventure, including plans to visit Istanbul, Kiev, Odessa, and Israel, was cut short when Fulbright canceled all its programs worldwide due to...
ORT student shows thanks by changing the world
Women’s American ORT, Organization for Rehabilitation and Training, has always been an educational and vocational game changer for students in the U.S. and around the world. Lifelong volunteer Sara Trub has been ORT-immersed for 48 years. An e-mail she received from a...
Student artwork from Elie Weisel Visual Arts Competition continues to inspire
Each year the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater sponsors the Elie Wiesel Visual Arts Competition. Hundreds of student artists from Tidewater, as well as nationally, create works of art that respond to various topics and guidelines which...
The state of anti-Semitism in America 2020: An interview with American Jewish Committee
One year ago, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) released a groundbreaking piece of research—the first-ever survey of American Jews on anti-Semitism in America. Released on the first anniversary of the deadly Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the worst anti-Semitic...
Community project feeds frontline healthcare workers— one meal at a time
When the COVID-19 pandemic started breaking out across the United States, Pam Blais began receiving a slew of phone calls. A former 18-year-emergency department registered nurse, Blais had countless friends and co-workers that were suddenly thrust to the frontlines...
Stein Family College Scholarship set to open December 1
Now in its 11th year, the Stein Family College Scholarship will begin accepting applications on December 1, 2020 for the 2021-2022 academic year. The annual grant for Jewish students in Tidewater provides a scholarship of up to $10,000 a year for college tuition. The...
Raising awareness of the benefits of Hospice and Palliative Care
Freda H. Gordon Hospice & Palliative Care Celebrates November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month Throughout November, Freda H. Gordon Hospice & Palliative Care joined organizations across the nation hosting community activities in recognition of...
New director for UJFT’s Jewish Community Relations Council
Rabbi Batya Glazer has been building relationships between the Jewish community and representatives of faith and ethnic communities through dialogue, working in coalition, and educational programming for years. She says she finds these relationships to be “an...
Tikkun Olam at Temple Israel: feeding the hungry during COVID
Not many people (if any) have fields to harvest or vineyards to glean, but as Jews, can still perform the mitzvah of Pe’ah by feeding the hungry—and Temple Israel does, generously and often, in gifts to Mazon, the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, and its annual High Holy...
KBH: Our size is our strength
Kehillat Bet Hamidrash, Kempsville Conservative Synagogue, also known as KBH, is a small, do-it-yourself Conservative Synagogue. Its modest building is home to 60 plus family units. Throughout the pandemic, the leadership has faced many of the same challenges as the...
It’s not your bubbe’s Melton: Classes begin Thursday, January 7, 2021
We are thrilled to bring the Florence Melton School of Adult Learning back to Tidewater as part of the Konikoff Center for Learning. Over the past year, I have spoken to many Melton graduates who had wonderful things to say about their time with the mini-school when...
Simon Family JCC, CRC, and community partners’ Israel Today, educating people about misconceptions
Erez Kaganovitz, Israeli artist, storyteller, and founder of the hit photoblog, Humans of Tel Aviv, landed in Tidewater ready to dispel misconceptions and ideas about his homeland by sharing stories of everyday people living in Tel Aviv. Through these stories of...
Jody Wagner gets honored, JFS reaps the reward
A leader of many organizations throughout Tidewater, Jody Wagner recently made a special gift to Jewish Family Service of Tidewater happen. Since 2006, Wagner has been a member of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation’s (HRCF) board of directors, including serving as...
Rabbi Jason Rubenstein’s multi-faceted visit to KBH reached many
“I’ve studied Rav Hutner before, but never like that,” says Rabbi Arthur Ruberg, rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth El. That is just one reaction after learning with Rabbi Jason Rubenstein at a pre-Selichot learning session, Saturday, Sept. 16, at Kehillat Bet...
A great start to a new year for BeAR
The Be A Reader literacy program kicked off the 2017-2018 school year with a welcome breakfast and meeting on Monday, Sept. 18 for nearly 50 new and returning volunteers. Gail Flax, program chair and founder, spoke about the program and BeAR captains talked about...
Maccabi Transatlantic Cup Golf takes Jeff Flax to England
Twelve Jewish American golfers went to battle with 12 Jewish British golfers using their clubs—their golf clubs, to be clear. These top amateur golfers played in the 22nd Maccabi Transatlantic Cup Golf Matches Sep. 12 through Sep. 15. Virginia Beach resident, Jeff...
Tidewater joins International Yom Limmud movement
Sunday, Nov. 12, 1–5 pm Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus Yom Limmud (Hebrew for “learning”) promotes global Jewish unity by offering an inclusive cross-communal space for Jews of all ages and backgrounds to meet, learn, volunteer, and build community. Since its’...
Talk about memorable proposals…
This is the end of the story Max Wagner popped the big question to Stephanie Guld after popping out of a plane. Yes, after skydiving! Spoiler alert: She said yes. Backing up to the BBYO beginning Stephanie grew up in Richmond, Va. where, when she was 15 years old and...
Traveling for memorable experiences
Four separate studies from Cornell University indicate that the secret to happiness is to spend money on experiences, not things. In fact, according to an article in Forbes, research at San Francisco State University found “people who spent money on experiences rather...
Mazel Tov
Mazel Tov, October 23, 2017
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater celebrates the new Campaign year and Israel @70
Community Relations Council’s 7th annual Israel Today series also begins The kickoff of the 2018 Annual Campaign of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater was held Tuesday, Sept. 12 on the Sandler Family Campus. Leaders from synagogues, Jewish agencies, and the...
Puerto Rico’s Jews turn to helping neighbors ravaged by Hurricane Maria
(JTA)—After he bribed three van drivers to load their vehicles with aid supplies and drive him and his crew from the San Juan airport, Eli Rowe felt his humanitarian mission was off to a good start. Gas was scarce in Puerto Rico, but now all the food, medicine and...
Jewish groups in aftermath of Las Vegas attack call for tougher gun control laws
Jewish groups responded to the mass shooting in Las Vegas by condemning the violence and calling for gun control legislation. At least 59 people are dead and more than 500 wounded in the attack at a country music festival outside the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on...
A klug zu Columbus! Happy Frobisher Day!
When, in their Lower East Side tenements and chained to their sweatshop sewing machines, our immigrant grandmothers were fed up with the arduous task of making ends meet, they would offer the following mild curse: A klug zu Columbus—A pox on Columbus (for having...
Jane Gardner presents inspirational message of hope
With a calmness and gentleness in her voice that defied the remarkable struggle she has faced, Jane Gardner told her story, “Live Each Day,” to a packed house at the Kaufman Theater at Chrysler Museum on Sunday, September 17. The former television news anchor has...
Virginia Beach recruits visit Virginia Holocaust Museum
The Virginia Beach Police Department continued their commitment to “Never Again” with their Recruit Class 63 during a recent trip to the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Organized by the Virginia Beach Law Enforcement Training Academy, Sergeant Bryan S. Marshall says that...
A story of connections
On the Sickle’s Edge Neville Frankel Dialogos, an imprint of Lavender Ink, 2016 ISBN: 978-1-944884-10-9 474 pages, $16.95, paperback Stories based on family history are a strong current in Jewish literature. It is by remembering and retelling that we honor our loved...
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Home, October 9, 2017
Beth Sholom Kahbaid Campaign passes $2-million mark as extensive renovation gets underway
You won’t see anything just yet by walking into the building off Auburn Drive, but there is a major renovation underway at the Berger-Goldrich Home at Beth Sholom Village. Some of the rooms on the Sholom Unit are vacant, with those residents having been shifted to...
American Jews weigh in on Trump, anti-Semitism, Netanyahu in poll
WASHINGTON (JTA)—American Jews overwhelmingly disapprove of President Donald Trump in just about every area, scoring him lower than his predecessor even on topics like Israel, where Jewish approval of Barack Obama was relatively low, according to an American Jewish...
In call with Jewish groups, Trump does not take questions
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The debate has gone on for weeks among rabbis and Jewish leaders: If President Donald Trump does not formally renounce white supremacists, is it still worth engaging in a conversation with him? This was on much of the Jewish community’s mind since...