(Kveller via JTA)— Earlier this year, my son’s elementary school hosted its winter band and choral concert. While waiting for the fifth- and sixth grade musicians to finish tuning their instruments, I scanned the brightly colored program to find my son’s name...
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Why Democrats and Republicans are fighting over the Jerusalem embassy bash
WASHINGTON (JTA)—A fight over who was and wasn’t invited to the U.S. Embassy dedication in Jerusalem last month is becoming yet another battle in the war between Republicans and Democrats over Israel. Top Jewish Democrats in Congress are suggesting the embassy bash...
Beth Sholom Rehab “Gets it right the first time”
The last thing anyone wants to hear after surgery or any other procedure that requires post-op rehabilitation, is that it is necessary to return to the hospital for more treatment. Today, neither does the rehab facility. The healthcare landscape is evolving from a...
Retirement celebration planned for Harry Graber
Thursday, June 14, 6 pm, Sandler Family Campus A festive celebration honoring Harry Graber for his decades of service to Tidewater’s Jewish community will take place this week. Months in the planning, the event promises to be meaningful, memorable, and entertaining....
A trip of a lifetime: A father and his daughters in Israel
Everyone has a hero. For me, it’s my dad, S. Beryl Adler. From extraordinary tomato gardener to dedicated flounder fisherman to champion gelato eater to ODU founding father (Monarch Magazine winter 2016), the man has always held my heart. So, when we had lunch...
Father’s Day
June 11, 2018, Father's Day
Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s team: positioned to “grow” the community’s future
Though small and mighty, the professional staff of the Tidewater Jewish Foundation is well equipped to help strengthen Tidewater’s Jewish community. The team is led by Scott Kaplan, president and CEO, who moved to the area with his family in 2014. In less than four...
Toras Chaim Dinner 2018 honors Rabbi Loiterman
More than 130 people celebrated 16 years of Toras Chaim at a dinner held on Sunday, May 13. The evening also honored Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Loiterman, the school’s principal, for his 10 years of selfless devotion to Toras Chaim. The evening began with a social cocktail...
A Mother’s Day celebration at Beth Sholom
Many mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers among the residents at the Berger-Goldrich Skilled Care Center and the Terrace Assisted Living facility, were honored by Beth Sholom Village on Mother’s Day with a special brunch. After guests ate, the new A’Bisl...
Community set to honor Harry Graber
Thursday, June 14, 6 pm, Sandler Family Campus After serving as United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s executive vice president for 15 years, Harry Graber is set to retire on June 30. In addition to his service at UJFT, Graber was Jewish Family Service’s executive...
One Night raises funds, delights diners
The Simon Family JCC held its signature fundraising event, One Night, on Tuesday, April 24. Hosted by Baker’s Crust Artisan Kitchen, 132 guests gathered for a night of outstanding Israeli cuisine, community, and philanthropy. This year’s guest chef, sponsored by the...
YAD’s momME time provides Tidewater moms with entryway to community and a much-needed break
The momME time program through the Young Adult Division of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, was launched in 2016 as a way to bring Tidewater moms together to bond, relax, and engage with the community; completely kid-free. From the start it has been a huge...
Two Israeli counselors join Camp JCC staff this summer
Two Israeli Scouts (Tzofim) will play an integral part of all eight weeks of Camp JCC this summer. These teenage girls, Hagar Sella and Shay Lopatner, are eager to join campers and counselors in Tidewater and are already working hard to be part of the Camp JCC staff....
Temple Sinai in Newport News named to Virginia Historic Register
Home of the only established Reform Jewish congregation on the Peninsula, Temple Sinai has been added to the Virginia Historic Register. At a joint meeting of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources State Review Board and the Board of Historic Resources, the...
Mary Catenaccio: Kosher Italian
Mary Catenaccio is a lively, mobile and very vocal 106-year-old resident at Beth Sholom Village. That information alone is a good enough story. However, as with many BSV residents, there is so much more to Mary. Russian Jewish immigrants, Mary’s parents moved to the...
Save one life, save a world
Dr. Ofer Merin speaks to Tidewater community Israel has long been known as a lone democracy in a region torn apart by ethnic and religious conflict. But what might be less known is Israel’s unparalleled efforts of sending medical rescue delegations to disaster zones....
Leyla Sandler impacts children in India
It must be in her DNA. Leyla Sandler, LCSW, spends her life helping others, whether in her “day job” or when she has “time off.” Sandler’s “day job” is spent as an investigative social worker on child abuse cases in Washington, D.C. Her recent “time off” was spent...
Statement on Virginia State Bar decision to cancel seminar in Israel
The Tidewater Jewish community joins with the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in their statements of condemnation following the Virginia State Bar’s decision to cancel their Midyear Legal Seminar...
Op-Ed: My son’s encounter with anti-Jewish hatred
(JTA)—Last summer our family went to southern Europe on holiday. During our stay at a hotel, our son Dylan went to the swimming pool. A short time later he came running back to the room, upset. A man at the pool had started hurling insults at him. My first instinct...
Virginia State Bar cancels Jerusalem seminar, cites ‘discriminatory’ border policies
The Virginia State Bar canceled its plans to hold a legal seminar in Jerusalem, citing “unacceptable discriminatory policies and practices pertaining to border security.” The Midyear Legal Seminar trip to Jerusalem had been scheduled for November, according to the...
Passover
Dear Readers, Passover begins this year on Friday evening, April 3. Nineteen years ago, the first seder also took place on April 3. Why do I remember? My daughter, who will be 19 on April 4, was letting me know in her own gentle way that she was ready to make her very...
Meyera’s Jewishness was front and center at her well attended memorial service
There have been funerals of significant Jewish business and philanthropic leaders over the years in Hampton Roads, but not of many prominent political figures who observed our faith. Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf was one of the few. The memorial service in...
JWRP women changing the world
It was a night of reconnecting as women from past Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project Israel trips came together at the home of Marcy Mostofsky to make mishloach manot (gifts of food between friends) for the residents of Beth Sholom Home to be delivered on Purim. The...
Check Mate: HAT Chess Club teaches strategy and sportsmanship
Want to be a better problem solver? Play chess. That’s what Hebrew Academy of Tidewater students do who participate in the Chess Club, under the guidance and expertise of local master chess player, Rabbi Michael Panitz. Rabbi Panitz, who volunteers his skills at HAT,...
Hunger is year-round
Millions of Americans who live on the brink of hunger are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet as the winter’s record snowfalls hit many parts of the country. Nearly 70 percent of the households served by Feeding America report that their most common...
Hebrew Ladies Charity Society continues its mission with JFS partnership
For the past 113 years, through several generations of change, the Relief Committee of Hebrew Ladies Charity Society (HLCS) has honored its mission of meeting the needs of local Jewish families requiring urgent financial assistance. The organization has provided food...
YAD’s Purimpalooza party is a wild success
The Young Adult Division of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater threw the craziest Purim party in town on the evening of Saturday, March 7. Nearly 200 revelers joined in the circus-themed fun and dressed up to walk the red carpet at the Sandler Family Campus of...
AIPAC: Record number of pro-Israel community convenes at critical moment
Thousands of pro-Israel activists gathered in Washington, D.C. March 1-3, 2015 for the largest-ever American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference to reaffirm the broad bipartisan consensus in support of the U.S.-Israel relationship. With violence...
Across Oceans and Generations—A Jewish History of Tidewater
Documentary premieres to standing room only crowd As somber music plays in the background, the prow of a boat cuts through dark waves in the dramatic opening scene of a new documentary about the Tidewater Jewish community. A narrator’s voice begins over an illustrated...
Will Netanyahu’s campaign rhetoric cause further estrangement with Washington?
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Obama administration’s first response to news that Benjamin Netanyahu had been reelected as prime minister of Israel appeared to be avoidance. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday, March 18 that the president would wait...
5 notable takeways from the Israeli election
(JTA)—In the United States, the magic number on Election Day is 270, the number of Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. In Israel, it’s 61, the number of seats needed to capture a majority in the 120-seat Knesset—and with it, the premiership. With...
Tom Hofheimer Revisited
Tom Hofheimer and the Medical Mission We begin with this brief introduction to honor the memory of Tom Hofheimer, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of his passing and the 30th anniversary of the Tom Hofheimer Foundation and its various versions since its...