Democrats flipped both the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates on November 5. Days later, Eileen Filler-Corn won a competitive race for the top spot in the House, beating out three opponents. Already making history in Virginia as the first Jewish woman minority...
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Congresswoman Luria a hit at Temple Israel Sisterhood event
Perhaps it’s not surprising that a Jewish congresswoman begins her talk to a Jewish group with personal references that the audience finds quite familiar. So it was with 2nd District Representative Elaine Luria who spoke to the Temple Israel Sisterhood on November 10....
The Tell: The Jewish players in impeachment
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The first public hearings in the Trump impeachment inquiry began this month with quite a splash. A bunch of Jewish actors are at play in this drama, and we’ve covered some before: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is caught in the middle...
Everything you need to know about Israeli settlements and the Trump administration’s announcement
(JTA)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced this month that the United States will no longer consider Israeli Jewish settlements in the West Bank to be illegal. Here’s an explainer about what the settlements are, how they are viewed in Israel and around the world,...
Congresswoman Elaine Luria leads effort to stand up for Israel and limit Hezbollah
Bipartisan letter to UN includes 240 Members of Congress Two hundred and forty lawmakers signed on to Congresswoman Elaine Luria’s (VA-02) bipartisan letter to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres urging an international effort to defend Israel,...
Activities abound at Beth Sholom Village
A range of activities are always on the calendar at Beth Sholom Village—some for health, and some for fun. Residents at BSV, for example, work with restorative nursing staff six days a week to stay active and prevent falling. Led by CNAs, participants exercise to...
27 years of bringing light to local Jewish children and teens
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...
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...
Sculptures by Lorraine Fink
Through June 16, Slover Library, Norfolk Mythically, with a wash of whimsy, this collection by includes 8- and 3-foot sculptures, which feature both obsolete and repurposed objects. The collection imparts a powerful, societal statement connecting past, present and...
Hebrew Academy Class of 2010 is off to college
Who doesn’t love a good before/after story? Hebrew Academy graduates from the Class of 2010 make a great one. And from the look of the photos, some pretty impressive growth happened in just a few short years. These students make HAT proud with their good hearts and...
CRC’s 5th annual Israel Today series ends with insight into mainstream media
It was a standing-room only crowd as the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and its community partners presented the final event in their 5th Annual Israel Today series on May 10. Matti Friedman, former Jerusalem Bureau reporter...
YAD’s leadership dinner with Matti Friedman
Past, present and future leaders of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Young Adult Division (YAD) gathered to hear the Community Relations Council’s Israel Today speaker Matti Friedman, and enjoy dinner and cocktails on Tuesday, May 10. YAD offers different...
Father’s Day
Dear Readers, In honor of Father’s Day, we asked a few daughters and sons who work with their dads to write a couple of paragraphs about the experience of spending their adult lives alongside their fathers. The responses were incredibly passionate, respectful,...
Three Jewish takeaways from Bernie Sanders’ run for president
(JTA)—Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But that’s not the end for Bernie Sanders, by far the most successful Jewish presidential candidate in American history. The Independent Vermont senator is defiant and says he’s taking the fight...
From the Hal Sacks Jewish News Archives
June 23, 2006 Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel of Ohef Sholom Temple sang the National Anthem to open the Tides game at Harbor Park. Attendance that night was 8,606, including 118 from Ohef Sholom as part of the Men’s Club Annual Tides Picnic. June 7, 1996 The board of...
Donald Trump’s anti-Semitism controversies: A timeline
NEW YORK (JTA)—Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing growing accusations that his campaign is countenancing anti-Semitism— if not encouraging it outright. Trump’s foreign policy slogan, “America First,” echoes the World War II -era...
One dollar goes a long way at United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
“Charity is not something we wait to do when we feel like it. We know if we wait to be inspired the inspiration may never arrive,” says Karen Jaffe, chair of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater Annual Campaign. “So we perform acts of righteousness, whether or...
It’s all Come Together
Year-long Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus renovation project is complete For the past 12 months, the sounds of children’s voices and clacking keyboards mingled with those of hammers and drills in the classroom hallways, offices and common areas at 5000 Corporate...
Health Care in the Jewish community
Israeli-developed HyGIeaCare® Center now open in collaboration with Gastrointestinal & Liver Specialists of Tidewater A new HyGIeaCare Center, where patients experience simple and easy bowel prep on the same day as their scheduled colonoscopy, recently opened at...
And the winner is… Brian Cohn, 6th grade student
For the fourth consecutive year, Tidewater students had the opportunity to learn some “cool facts” about Israel and share what they learned by creating original works of art. The 4th Annual Israel Poster Contest, sponsored by the Community Relations Council of the...
The Simon Family JCC celebrates its Biennial Meeting as its staff merges with the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
Wednesday, June 15, 7 pm The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC are merging. Starting in January of 2016, JCC leadership initiated a plan for the Center and UJFT to combine resources, creating a stronger staff to support both the Federation and...
Local Lions of Judah welcome Jeannie Opdyke Smith to Tidewater
Yom HaShoah speaker Jeannie Opdyke Smith came to Tidewater a little early to meet with a special group of women. Thirty local Lions of Judah (Jewish women advocates and donors of $5,000 or greater to the UJFT annual campaign) met for lunch with Smith to hear in an...
Respect and hope mark community’s 2016 Yom Hashoah Holocaust Day of Remembrance gathering
From Wendy Juren Auerbach’s heartfelt welcome on behalf of the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater to Jay Klebanoff’s respectful closing remarks as UJFT president, Tidewater’s 2016 Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Day of Remembrance was a...
Hebrew Academy students write pen pals in Kiryat Yam
Snail mail. Almost a lost art form, yes? Not for Hebrew Academy of Tidewater students. The sending and receiving of hand-written letters with new Israeli pen pals has become a fun way to broaden world perspectives, develop their cognitive and creative abilities and...
Six ways Israel is counting its blessings on Independence Day
TEL AVIV (JTA)—When Israel entered its 1948 War of Independence, the coastal city of Rishon Lezion was a hardscrabble farming settlement with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. As waves of immigrants inundated Israel in its founding years, many were settled in temporary...
Choose Life
Most rabbis have the luxury of building relationships with their congregants that grow and change over the course of decades. They get to see their congregants’ life cycle events, be with them during times of joy and grieve with them during times of sorrow. The...
From the Hal Sacks Jewish News Archive
May 19, 2006 The Women’s Cabinet Outreach Committee of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, co-chaired by Judy Rubin and Ellen Peck Rosenblum, held two tours of the Chrysler Museum focused on works by contemporary Jewish artists. May 24, 1996 Ada Michaels, who...
Naro Expanded Cinema’s presentation of The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the U.S. skews the truth
On Wednesday, May 4, the Naro Cinema presented The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the U.S. This film is an extremely skewed propaganda piece for the ‘Israel as evil occupier camp;’ those who believe Palestinian suffering is primarily...