A Jewish Family Service client I was in a domestic abuse situation for a long time. I finally got the courage to leave and move back in with family. I was pregnant at the time. Although my family was able to take me in, they were not prepared for the new costs of...
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Mikvah construction underway
“It is hard to believe how far we have come with the construction of the Mikvah! So many community members from all over have already come together to support this project. Hoping for continued success!!” says Sarah Lipman. To learn more about the new Mikvah, or to...
Israelis are using photos of Greta Thunberg to shame each other over plastic utensils
Israelis who are concerned about a warming climate have a new tactic: using cut-out photos of the prominent teen climate activist Greta Thunberg to shame their colleagues for using plasticware. In workplaces across Tel Aviv, people are placing pictures of Thunberg,...
A Jewish photographer has been capturing Alexander Vindman and his twin for nearly four decades
(JTA)—Carol Kitman remembers meeting Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman nearly 40 years ago in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. The brothers were about 4½ years old and dressed in matching blue sailor outfits with navy caps. Kitman was instantly taken with the twins and asked to...
JFS welcomes three new board of directors
Jewish Family Service of Tidewater recently gained three new board members. Mazel Tov to the new directors and to JFS for adding these women to the board, as each brings different expertise. Rebecca Tall Fun fact—I have triplets (19-years-old, two boys and a girl)....
Saluting Israel’s heroes: the Benson family
Glenn Benson of Bethesda, Maryland, grew up in an ardently Zionist home, the son of South African immigrants who cared deeply for Israel. In high school he attended Jewish day school, participated in a B’nai B’rith Youth Organization summer trip to Israel, visited...
Congregation Beth Chaverim and Tidewater Chavurah held Joint High Holiday Services
Wonderful, warm, and meaningful High Holiday services were held with Tidewater Chavurah and Congregation Beth Chaverim in the Parrish Hall at Old Donation Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach. Combing the best of both Reform congregations resulted in inspiring services...
Shalom Baby: Moms bond with babies and heritage
Bond is exactly what Alicia Pahl-Cornelius did when she started listening to the CD of Jewish songs that came in her personally delivered Shalom Baby basket. Pahl-Cornelius says she loved her basket so much, she referred a friend who was days away from giving birth...
The other patient, birthday twins and Double Chai
On June 25, Carly Glikman went to Sentara Leigh Hospital for a scheduled C-Section to deliver her second child. Glikman is United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s outreach manager. When the nurse started to prep Glikman for the procedure, she was told to stop and was...
Ohef Sholom Temple’s Consecration Class gets goofy
After the formal photographs were taken, Ohef Sholom Temple’s Religious School’s newest students had a good time getting goofy with Rabbi Roz Mandleberg and Cantor Jen Rueben on Sunday, October 20. Surrounded by an unscrolled Torah, parents, Religious School students...
Saying Good-bye
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...
Nearly 9 in 10 American Jews say anti-Semitism is a problem in U.S.
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...
Society of Professionals holds first networking event
A new business in the newly created ViBe district of Virginia Beach proved to be the perfect setting for the inaugural event of the newest Jewish group in Hampton Roads. The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Society of Professionals held its launch party on...
Kiryat Yam visits Tidewater
Sherri Wisoff Five Israeli delegates from Kiryat Yam, Tidewater’s Jewish community’s sister city in Israel, spent a whirlwind, and often rain-soaked week in Tidewater last month. During the week of September 18, these young adults visited most of Tidewater’s Jewish...
Joyce Strelitz wins prestigious award at International Women’s Conference
Joyce Strelitz, a longtime Tidewater leader and philanthropist, was honored by The Jewish Federations of North America’s National Women’s Philanthropy with its prestigious Kipnis- Wilson/Friedland Award on Tuesday, September 13. The award was announced at the 2016...
Excitement builds for TJF’s new Life and Legacy initiative
The Jewish experience is nothing if not diverse. Some might only celebrate the High Holy Days, or others might attend shul for Shabbat services every week. Perhaps it is that perfected challah recipe, or just a good bowl of matzah ball soup. From Hebrew school to...
Statewide recognition for the Holocaust Commission
The Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater has been named the recipient of the 2016 Virginia Council for the Social Studies Friend of Education Award. Awarded annually to “a non-profit organization that exemplifies a commitment to teachers...
Shimon Peres, last of Israel’s founders, dies
Ben Sales TEL AVIV (JTA)—Shimon Peres, the former defense hawk turned Nobel Peace Prize winner and the last of Israel’s founders, has died. Peres died before dawn Wednesday, September 28 at 93. The former president suffered a massive stroke earlier last month and was...
5776: The year in review
(JTA)—A stabbing and car-ramming epidemic in Israel that some called a third intifada was among the most dominant Jewish stories of the past year. But 5776 was also notable for the release of spy Jonathan Pollard after 30 years in prison, the communal fallout from the...
Neta Levi, Israeli mixed media artist exhibit at the Leon Family Art Gallery
September 21–October 23 Sandler Family Campus In describing her creative process, Neta Levi says, ”When I’m closing the door behind me to my studio (garage)…I feel like I’m drifting away with my imagination. I celebrate my creativity with endless tubes of color and...
Shabbat Shalom to summer
Freshly cut grass, chlorine, sunscreen, and melted popsicles are the scents of summer usually found by the pool at the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus. On the evening of Friday, August 29 at the YAD and JCC End of Summer Shabbat Dinner and Pool Party, new aromas...
From the Hal Sacks Jewish News Archives
September 22, 2006 Fourteen teenagers took a weeklong bus adventure as part of the Simon Family Jewish Community Center’s Operation Understanding Hampton Roads. The group visited Atlanta, Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery, and such diverse sites as the Voting Rights...
Making the world a better place
With the approach of the Jewish Holidays, many of us are starting to review our actions over the past year. We reflect on the goals we set for ourselves and assess whether we met them and we begin to contemplate how we can make positive changes going forward. As I...
Diamonds Direct Grand Opening in Virginia Beach features placement of mezuzot
An Israeli-run jewelry store is now open in Virginia Beach, complete with mezuzot adjacent to the front and inside doors. Diamonds Direct is the eighth in a fast growing chain that started in Charlotte in 1995 and has spread across the southeast United States....
Home
Dear Readers, According to Reform Judaism, A Jewish Way of Life, a small handbook that covers topics from What is Torah? to The State of israel to Life Cycle and everything in between, “When establishing a Jewish home, it is important to find a town, city, or neigh...
Area high school and college students share how they spent their ‘Jewish Summers.’
Hannah Cooper Birthright Israel Rafting down the Jordan River. Hiking up Masada. Floating in the Dead Sea. Praying at the Western Wall. Riding a camel. This summer I had the privilege to travel to Israel through Taglit Birthright, an organization that provides...
Report from Israel
I had another rewarding pilgrimage this past July to Israel—the land of my upbringing—spent with my Israeli family led by my mother Chasia (“God spares”), a 94-year-young Polish Holocaust survivor from Sarny, Ukraine who is a remarkable symbol of Jewish endurance and...
Brith Sholom’s “Club 50 Dinner & Dance” celebrates longevity
A celebration of long-lasting marriage, Brith Sholom held its annual Club 50 Dinner & Dance on Sunday, August 21 at Beth Sholom Village. Deemed “a real success,” 135 people attended, including 37 couples married who are 50 years or more. The evening began with...
Time to run free
I told you that you reminded me of someone. That day on the beach at Quidnet. i couldn’t help thinking i had seen that same face before. Your strong forehead and broad cheeks. Your delicate curves and Roman nose. The puffy pout and little mouth. The mystery in your...
Tidewater Jewish Foundation and community selected by Harold Grinspoon Foundation as a Life and Legacy program partner
One of only eight Jewish communities from across North America selected to participate in the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s Life and Legacy program, the Tidewater Jewish Foundation is part of the program’s fifth cohort. Life and Legacy now includes a total of 37...
Kiryat Yam: Tidewater’s Sister City in Israel
Young adult Kiryat Yam residents to visit Tidewater this month A seaside town with beautiful beaches. A vibrant arts and music culture. A diverse and pluralistic Jewish community comprised of people from all backgrounds. Rumors of mermaid sightings in the water. No,...
From the Hal Sacks Jewish News Archive
September 8, 2006 A developer of real estate, Marvin Simon was best known in the Jewish community for developing ideas, synagogues, Jewish Community Centers and Jewish agencies. He died August 30 at home, surrounded by his family. On Sunday, September 3, Ohef Sholom...