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The traditional in-person experience of art might have temporarily receded into the past, but for local artist Lorraine Fink, not even a pandemic could keep her art from the community she loves. Last month, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC...
The Holocaust Commission gratefully acknowledges the following White Rose and Red Rose donors from this year’s annual campaigns to raise funds to continue our vital programming. We could not provide the vital educational support we offer to teachers, the military, and...
Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s Simon Family Passport to Israel will send eight students to Israel after a yearlong program pause due to the pandemic. “With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the world last year, we simply couldn’t have students travel in the summer of...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Washington’s National Cathedral, known for its role during presidential inaugurations and other days of national import, is honoring Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust memoirist with a bust, making him the first Jew to be so honored....
In the digital-turned-remote age of work and worship, every single dollar makes a difference. Five synagogues in the area received funds from United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund of the Tidewater Jewish Community to upgrade and...
After almost 18 years of serving the spiritual and religious needs of Beth Sholom Village as its director of Religious Services, Cantor Elihu Flax is retiring in July. Cantor Flax became a fixture at BSV, taking an interest in all of the residents who lived there,...
Beth Sholom Village is set to welcome Rabbi Adam Ruditsky as its new Religious Cultural Leader. Ordained by the Academy for Jewish Religion of California in Los Angeles, Ruditsky embraces the words of the Kotzker Rebbe, who taught, “a whole heart is a broken heart,”...
The most common questions that people ask regarding summer camp, says Dave Flagler, Camp JCC director, concerns swimming. “People want to know if swimming will take place,” he says. “’Of course, it will!’ I tell everyone.” Camp JCC, after all, is known for its...
Have you met or do you know someone who has recently moved to our community? If so, Shalom Tidewater would love to welcome them on behalf of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Simon Family JCC. Please direct them to the link on our website,...
As you may have already heard, Rebecca Aleck Koltun, daughter of Virginia Beach native Audrey (Aleck) Koltun and her husband Scott, and the granddaughter of Helen and Warren Aleck, suffered a life-altering, horrific skiing accident on March 13. Rebeca severely...
Like Jews around the globe, Romanian Jews have their own history and reason to be proud to belong to the big family of Bereshit, where they learn together and celebrate Judaism. “As we all turn to preparing for Pesah in our homes, I am proud to share what is taking...
In February, Brith Sholom held their first successful online elections, which were necessary due to the pandemic. The newly elected officers and board members were installed during a Zoom meeting on Sunday, March 7. The installed officers and board members are: Joe...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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’...
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...
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, October 23, 2017
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...
(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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Home, October 9, 2017
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...
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...
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...