For anyone who ever wondered if a Yeti coffee cup really does keep coffee hotter than other competing cups, Shayna Friedman, a fourth-grade student at Hebrew Academy of Tidewater, answered this question through her Science Fair project. On Thursday, April 17, Hebrew...
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Natalie Portman explains why she won’t accept prize in Israel: It’s about Netanyahu
Natalie Portman said she wouldn’t attend a prize ceremony in Israel because of her feelings about its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and “atrocities” committed on his watch, but emphasized that she would not shun Israel itself. The Jerusalem-born director and...
RBG filmmakers hope to inspire Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s millennial fans
NEW YORK (JTA)—One of the first scenes in a new documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg features the Supreme Court associate justice, then 84, vigorously lifting weights, doing leg exercises and holding herself in a plank position. The much buzzed-about workout routine...
Color Run to Color War
On Sunday, April 29, BINA students turned the field at the Simon Family JCC into a new form of a rainbow. The girls had a Color Run to raise money to use for conventions and programs with other communities. Most of the student body (along with a few future students)...
Lessons quickly learned from What We Carry
The following letter was sent last month to Elena Baum, director of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Holocaust Commission: I am writing to you from Princess Anne Middle School. I am a school counselor here and wanted to reach out to you to thank you personally...
Israel Story enthralls Tidewater audience
In May 1967, the world heard the song Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, Jerusalem of Gold, for the first time as Shuli Nathan stood on stage and sang the words written by Naomi Shemer. At the time, the Old City of Jerusalem was still under control of the Jordanians, and the...
Holly Berger Markhoff art at Stravitz Galleries Through May
A contemporary mixed media artist known for her emotive figurative and expressionist paintings, Holly Berger Markhoff’s stunning paintings are now on exhibit at Richard Stravitz Sculpture & Fine Art Galleries in Virginia Beach. Influenced by the elongated figures...
Yom Hashoah moves the community
This year’s Yom Hashoah Commemoration, honoring the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, as well as liberators and righteous gentiles, brought the community together around not just awareness and sadness, but honor and hope for the future. Yom Hashoah co-chair Elka...
Harry Graber Retirement
Never too young to learn about Passover
At the Strelitz Early Childhood Education Center, Passover learning includes all of the children. In the infant program, for example, one child, attracted by a dimpled faux matzah ball, crawled to an eye-level poster with matzah balls attached by Velcro… and pulled...
Seven treasures from a centennial exhibit on Leonard Bernstein
(JTA)—From his birthplace in Boston to New York, Berlin, South Africa, China, and Israel, Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), the larger-than-life conductor, pianist, composer, educator and bon vivant, is being celebrated in a two-year bonanza of concerts, stage...
“Betsy Ross of Israel” flag donated to the Ben-Gurion Archives at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
NEW YORK April 16, 2018—In honor of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) has donated an Israeli flag created by Rebecca Affachiner, often called “the Betsy Ross of Israel,” to the...
JCPA Leadership Mission to Poland and Israel
Journal entry Dec. 6, 2014 And so it begins…. On an adventure to Poland and Israel courtesy of Lois and Larry Frank of Atlanta and the JCPA, based on a recommendation from United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Robin Mancoll. The itinerary looks amazing and...
Survivors return to Auschwitz determined to share their stories
KRAKOW, Poland (JTA)—What kept you alive? Did your non-Jewish friends reject you? Could you ever forgive? Those were some of the questions posed by Jewish young adults to Holocaust survivor Marcel Tuchman on Monday, Jan. 26 at the Galicia Jewish Museum here. “What...
Charlie Hebdo: Freedom of speech and mutual respect
The recent assassinations of French citizens were horrendous acts of barbarity. In addition, they also were violent attacks on our concept of civil liberties. Most of us love our freedom of speech, lots of it and for very good reasons. And many of us enjoy social...
Indian River High School honors Dana Cohen
Dana Cohen does not seem to like to be the center of attention, though that was the case on Friday, Jan. 9, as it was “Dana Cohen Day” at Indian River High School in Chesapeake. Master teacher Craig Blackman, the Holocaust Commission’s Esther Goldman Education...
We’re going to Argentina! Want to come? Say si!
The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater will lead a mission to the Jewish community of Argentina in the fall. Beginning in Buenos Aires on Thursday, Oct. 15, the mission will include visits with Jewish community leaders and opportunities to see Federation’s Campaign...
The Rise of Anti-Semitism: Not only a “Jewish Issue”
Amidst horrific reports of anti-Semitic violence emanating from Europe, and just one day before hostages were killed at a kosher French market, the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater presented a timely program, The Rise of Anti-Semitism: A Resurgence of Evil. More...
Mayim Bialik’s reflections on the Paris attacks
(KVELLER/JTA)—I grew up in a public school that had enough Jewish kids that I felt represented. I went to Hebrew school twice a week and had a chavurah, or fellowship, through my Reform synagogue with kids my age. A portion of my family was Orthodox. I was surrounded...
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
The past few weeks have seen people rise up to protest the killings in France and all that they portend for civilization. There seemingly was no doubt that people understood that what occurred was reprehensible and a frighteningly fundamental attack on freedom and on...
Administrator gains national certification
Jessica Willingham, RN, BSN, administrator at the Freda H. Gordon Hospice and Palliative Care of Tidewater, achieved certification as a Hospice and Palliative Care Administrator last month from the National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses...
What more can you do? Date with the State
Wednesday, Feb. 4, Richmond The annual Community Relations Council’s delegation to Richmond for Jewish Advocacy Day is always a great event, and this year, it is more imperative than ever to have a good community turnout. Between the conflict with Hamas last summer...
Congregation Beth El’s From Bimah to Broadway was an afternoon of song
Three cantors and a rabbi walk onto the bimah…. No, it is not the start of a bad Yiddish joke. But there were a few of those quips when Congregation Beth El hosted its largest fundraiser on Dec. 14 since its 150th anniversary celebration in 2000. Rabbi Jeffrey...
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater launches The Corporate Partners Circle “Doing good is good business”
A place where philanthropy, volunteerism and shared commitment come together to make a difference in the community and around the world, the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater launched a new initiative, The Corporate Partners Circle, in the summer of 2014. Its...
Local mom, author, psychotherapist, Israeli advocate and non-observant Jew becomes surprising ambassador to International Orthodox Jewish Movement
No one is more surprised that this happened, than I am. Several weeks ago, a speaker came to the B’nai Israel Congregation for a United Jewish Federation of Tidewater-funded Scholar in Residence program. Allison Josephs is the founder of Jewinthecity.com, a...
Take JTA’s 2014 news quiz
(JTA)—What made headlines (in Israel, the U.S. and around the world) in 2014? Test your knowledge with JTA’s annual news quiz: 1. Palestinian officials apologized to Czech authorities after the Palestinian envoy to Prague, Jamal Al-Jamal, was killed in an explosion in...
Jewish cartoonist Georges Wolinski among 12 dead in Paris shooting
(JTA)—An attack on the Paris headquarters of a French satirical magazine has left at least 12 people dead, including the Jewish caricaturist Georges Wolinski. Two of the reported fatalities in the Wednesday, Jan. 7 attack were police officers, according to the French...
Europe’s Last Jews
Diaspora Goes on the Defensive Amid Anti-Semitism This has been a tough year for Jews. But you’ve heard that before. I used to attend a synagogue where every Yom Kippur the rabbi, as part of his Israeli Bonds appeal, would begin by bemoaning what a bad year it had...
Relating the past to the present: Holocaust Commission announces 2015 student competitions
Earlier this month, the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater announced the official start of its 2015 Elie Wiesel Student Writing & Visual Arts Competitions. This is the 18th year the Commission has invited students to enter the...
Who smiles more during Grandparents’ Day?
The last day of school before Thanksgiving break is always an exciting one, and not just because it kicks off the start of a long holiday weekend. It is also when all the students at Hebrew Academy and the Strelitz preschool host Grandparents’ Day, a cherished...
Young adult volunteers add helping Hands to Helping Hearts project
Fluffing teddy bears may sound like easy work, but when there are more than 1,000 of the small plush stuffed toys that need sprucing up, the job can be daunting. The Personal Affairs Management program of the Jewish Family Service of Tidewater was in luck on...
Ohef Sholom Temple takes Tikkun Olam to heart
On any Sunday when Ohef Sholom’s Religious School is in session, tzedakah is given, and mitzvah projects are set in motion. The Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, however, was unique because each of the 12 classrooms collected canned foods to be part of a larger community...