Southeastern Virginia: Chesapeake • Norfolk • Portsmouth • Suffolk • Virginia Beach
Archives
When Alisa Kosovsky got to Beth Sholom Village, she immediately walked over to sit with Lillian Kozak. The two are decades apart in age, but as close as ever. One is on the precipice of starting her life independent of her family—in college. The other is looking back...
Philanthropy was so intricately woven into the fabric of Reba and Sam Sandler’s family, that it should be no surprise that their children continue on their parents’ path. Perhaps one might suggest however, that equally important to their own generous gifts is that...
When Jewish Family Service of Tidewater’s nurse’s aide Tiphaney Powell speaks about her clients, she does so with a great deal of respect, love, and admiration. After all, when your clients are two 93-year-old women and a 96-year-old man, a lot of life lessons may be...
I recently returned from leading my 38th Birthright Israel trip. Virginia-based students on this trip were from William and Mary, Christopher Newport University, and Old Dominion University. Students always ask if the trip gets old for me. After all, we go to mostly...
She speaks with a slight, but distinct, accent whose origin I had long suspected, but, given her age and all that implied, been hesitant to ask. One night at dinner, though, I posed the simple question to 95-year-old Elsie Hirsch, “Where are you from?” She looked at...
On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed May to be Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM). The announcement was the crowning achievement in an effort by the Jewish Museum of Florida and South Florida Jewish community leaders. Their dedication resulted in...
Some children get overwhelmed when exposed to certain sensory experiences and react with behavior that’s not always conducive to social situations. Now, there’s a solution for these children on the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus. Called the Calming Cove, this new...
The Women’s Cabinet of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater recently hosted its annual spring lunch for cabinet members and others at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach. Featured at the event was Jewish American Philanthropist Jane Weitzman (wife of...
A heartwarming graduation ceremony for Hebrew Academy of Tidewater’s Class of 2018 took place on Tuesday, June 5. Almost all of the graduating class had attended the school since they were toddlers, so it was a bittersweet finale to their wonderful years at HAT. The...
June 25, 2018 Senior Living
In early June, I had the pleasure of joining Lawrence Steingold, Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s incoming board chair, as well as Scott Kaplan, TJF president and CEO, and Sallie Williams, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s marketing director, along with colleagues...
Shelby Brown, Mattisyahu Loiterman, and Audrey Peck—three Tidewater teens—will head to Israel with the support of a grant from Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s Simon Family Passport to Israel program. Brown, a rising senior at Norfolk Academy, will spend three weeks in...
Gidi Grinstein enlightened and inspired those who heard him speak at one of three presentations on Monday, April 20: a luncheon for Hebrew speakers, a reception at the Simon Family JCC for community leaders and Celebrate Israel sponsors, and a community-wide event at...
Based on one of 12 facts, Mushky Brashevitzky’s design secured the most votes from the global, online voting community to win the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s third annual Israel Poster contest. Mushky chose the fact,...
Each spring, the Strelitz Early Childhood Center students take a trip to Israel. Well, they sort of take a trip. They pack their bags, get on a plane, have their passport stamped and travel all over the country in one morning. Of course, the “trip” is pretend, but the...
Be enthusiastic. Always give the best you’ve got. Self-advocate. Those are just a few of the pieces of advice that Joan Lunden gave the audience of the packed Johnson Theater at Norfolk Academy on Sunday, April 26. Lunden, the former host of ABC’s Good Morning...
When I was a little girl until well into college, I didn’t dream of weddings, having children or a house with a white picket fence. I wanted to be a criminal defense lawyer and live in Chicago and defend big time scoundrels. That was my fairytale. It was a bit film...
Dear Readers, Since Mother’s Day is celebrated in May, this month always feels like an appropriate time to focus on women. While being a mom is without a doubt one of the most rewarding, loving, exhilarating and important roles a woman can undertake, it’s not the only...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—For help facing its worst drought in centuries, California should look to a country that beat its own chronic water shortage: Israel. Until a few years ago, Israel’s wells seemed like they were always running dry. TV commercials urged Israelis to...
Rabbi Sharon Brous was the guest teacher at the annual Tidewater Together program last month. Named one of America’s most influential rabbis by Newsweek, The Forward and The Jewish Week, she offered a prayer at President Obama’s 2012 Inauguration ceremony and...
After a devastating earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit the impoverished mountainous country of Nepal last month, killing more than 5,000 people, Israeli and Jewish humanitarian and governmental organizations assumed their traditional role on the...
Today I voted. For a woman. Today I joined the movement “Woman on 20s,” which is encouraging the president to have a woman’s face replace Andrew Jackson’s on the $20 bill. I was taken by this idea for the same reason as hundreds of thousands of Americans—It’s time. As...
Teaching literacy in preschool involves helping students develop readiness skills to read and comprehend. As early as two years old, children begin building these skills. Strelitz Early Childhood Center teaches literacy, preparing students for kindergarten and the...
In the summer of 1974, 15 local teenagers experienced an amazing month-long adventure in Israel. The trip followed a month of Judaic study taught by two Brandeis University graduate students and Hebrew taught by Froike Inbar, Community Shaliach, at the Jewish...
I’ll start by sharing with you that yesterday, April 9, was a special day for Miriam and me. It was our 37th anniversary. We were married just before Pesach in 1978, and since that date often coincides with Pesach, we’ve celebrated with lots of macaroons and matzah...
9 other things you may not know about Israel’s past (JTA)—Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, falls on April 23. In honor of the Jewish state’s 67th birthday, we present, in no particular order, 10 little- known aspects of its history. 1. El Al used to fly to...
Supporting myriad programs, including Magical Chairs, clinics and exchanges The first part of this series ( Jewish News, March 23, 2015) described how the Tom Hofheimer Fund brought Israeli reconstructive plastic surgeons to Tidewater to study with local specialists....
NEW YORK (JTA)—In 20 years, there will be more Muslims in North America than Jews, according to a new Pew Research Center report. The report, which was released Thursday, April 2 also found that more American Jews are leaving Judaism than non-Jews are joining the...
A few weeks after Ben & Jerry’s founders indicated that marijuana- infused ice cream may one day join its product line, the company’s kosher-for-Passover charoset flavor has been generating buzz. In case your memories of last year’s seder are blurred by too many...
Passover is bad enough without having to feed your kids, too. And breakfast during Passover can be pretty tricky: no toast, no oatmeal, no (palatable) cereal and no traditional syrup-drenched pancakes. Aside from making matzah brei every day, the options are somewhat...
Hebrew Academy of Tidewater and the Strelitz preschool logged another successful event with this year’s 8th Annual Book Fair. Raising more than $6,000, the March affair was filled with great excitement, bringing students and families together over a love of reading....
The Young Adult Division’s Girls Night Out and Guys Night Out programs joined forces for a fun and friendly night of bowling competition on Saturday, March 21. For more than two hours, three teams of young adults went head to head to see who could make the most...