Co-founder of Israel’s first music television channel, Israeli journalist, culture critic, and DJ, Eyal Rob brought the Tel Aviv music scene to Tidewater last month. His visit concluded the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s...
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Not your parents’ Science Fair
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...
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...
“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...
A bright road ahead at Tidewater Jewish Foundation
I am thrilled to join the outstanding team at the Tidewater Jewish Foundation and to have the honor to serve this community as its president and CEO. With a rich history and longevity of professional leadership in this position, I hope to build upon our success while...
Mini-mission brings home importance of Super Sunday success
Super Sunday, January 25, 2015 • 9 am–1 pm • Volunteers needed for two shifts Planning a successful fundraising event often involves many hours spent strategizing and meeting inside boardrooms or offices. In the case of Super Sunday, the largest, single Tidewater...
Business & Legal Society gets special briefing on Iran
Staring into Syria from the border of Israel’s Golan Heights last summer, Mark Dubowitz encountered an unnerving sight—the black flag of ISIL, also known as ISIS or the Islamic State. With civil war and humanitarian atrocities raging just a few clicks away in...
Highlighting campus sexual assault, Jewish groups have taken a lead
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (JTA)—Jewish campus groups were ready for the painful national dialogue that took place in the wake of murky rape allegations at the University of Virginia. That’s because organizations like Hillel and historically Jewish Greek houses such as...
Jewish Tidewater 2014
A look back at some of the notable activities of Tidewater’s Jewish community in 2014 Saturday, January 18 The Simon Family JCC’s Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Howard and Alma* Laderberg, held its Opening Night at the Sandler Center for the Performing...
Terror from Tehran: Iran as an international threat
On the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Community Relations Council and community partners presented the second of its Israel Today lecture series to a packed audience on the Sandler Family Campus. While additional chairs had to be set up just before the program...
Ira Forman to discuss Global Anti-Semitism
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, 7:30 pm Sandler Family Campus The increases in anti-Semitic acts taking place around the world have sounded alarms in both the Jewish and secular communities. Consider that just last week, Spanish prosecutors were investigating the actions of...