On the second night of Hanukkah, December 13, more than 150 children and adults gathered at the Sandler Family Campus to celebrate the Festival of Lights. The 5th annual Latkepalooza, co-sponsored by the Simon Family Jewish Community Center and PJ Library, included...
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Portnoys agree on their legacy
When talking with Erinn and Dr. Felix Portnoy, the commitment and love they have for the Jewish community is obvious. As parents of very young children, they feel compelled to step up and provide for the Jewish future of the next generation, and are thrilled to be...
Jewish volunteers serve Christmas dinner
For almost a quarter-century, about 20 Jews in Tidewater have engaged in a beloved Christmas tradition: serving Christmas dinner at a homeless shelter in Norfolk. For at least 20 years, they ensured that residents of the Dwelling Place, an emergency shelter that has...
HAT graduate moves home to serve community as rabbi
There’s a new rabbi in town. Just before Hanukkah, Virginia Beach native Rabbi Zalman Margolin moved from Brooklyn with his wife Bracha and their two children to expand Chabad of Tidewater with a new presence near the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. “We are delighted to...
Delta employees detail a pattern of anti-Semitic abuse at airline
NEW YORK (JTA)—It wasn’t long after Nahum Amir began working for Delta Airlines as a mechanic that he says his manager started calling him “the Jewish guy.” Then Amir says the manager accused him and other Jews of “killing kids in Gaza.” During the same period, Yaron...
Investments & Giving
Investments, January 22, 2017
Cantor with a conscience: Cantor Jennifer Rueben
A soaring new cantorial voice can be heard at Ohef Sholom Temple. Facilitating meaningful prayer and bringing festive and beautiful music to her congregation, however, are not the only talents Cantor Jennifer Rueben has revealed since her arrival in Norfolk five short...
Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film
25 | Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film presented by Alma & Howard Laderberg* and Patricia & Avraham Ashkenazi continues through Sunday, Jan. 28 National and international films, classics, and dramas featuring award-winning Jewish writers, actors, and...
Dozens of Jewish activists arrested at protest urging Congress to protect ‘Dreamers’
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Police in the U.S. Capitol arrested some 100 Jewish activists, many of them clergy, who protested in a Senate office building on behalf of a bill that would protect illegal immigrants who arrived as children. Several dozen of the activists from the...
Super Sunday
Sunday, Jan. 28 • 10 am – 1 pm United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s biggest phone-a-thon fundraising day of the year— Super Sunday—raises money for the annual campaign. The annual event supports UJFT’s work, which directly impacts the lives of Jews in Tidewater as...
Tax laws in flux: Give now!
Year-end is often the most opportune time to consider financial and tax planning strategies. As this article is being written, Congress and the White House are negotiating significant changes in the tax laws that could, if enacted, impact financial strategies and...
From Brooklyn to Norfolk State
I grew up in a not so religious American Jewish household in a heavily Orthodox section of Brooklyn in the 1980s. I felt disconnected from my culture and outcast from the community, even though it surrounded me. Only a few generations removed from an Orthodox...
White City Shabbat breaks Guinness World Record for largest Shabbat Dinner with 2,226 diners in Tel Aviv
White City Shabbat set the Guinness World Record for the Largest Shabbat Dinner ever at the Hangar 11 in the port of Tel Aviv when 2,226 attendees were officially inscribed in the Guinness World Record for the Largest Shabbat Dinner on Friday night June 13. Notable...
Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Konikoff Center of Learning Graduation awards and presentations
Nine year awards (from preschool, age two–5th grade)—Mushky Brashevitzky, Shayda Rahimzadeh, Blake Brown, Gabe Foleck, Leo Kamer and Danial Watts James London Memorial Athlete of the Year—Danial Watts Most Improved in General Studies—Shayda Rahimzadeh Abe and Anna...
Two area students reflect on Birthright Israel
Memories for a lifetime by Sam Sacks, Virginia Tech, class of 2014 It is incredible what one can experience during 10 days in Israel. Earlier this year, thanks to Birthright and Hillel at Virginia Tech, we were given the opportunity to witness the Land of Israel. Of...
Hap Unger’s rug goes to HAT
There are many people who have walked through the halls at Hebrew Academy of Tidewater, wherever it has been located. Some are more memorable than others, but few made as “big” a mark on the school as Harold (Hap) Unger. I first met Hap when his daughter Jennifer...
Jewish Family Service: 62nd Biennial Meeting
On Monday June 9, JFS held its Biennial Meeting to install the new board president and officers. Dr. Marcia Samuels, outgoing president, welcomed Lawrence Steingold, who will serve as president for the 2014-2016 term. The other members of the executive committee are:...
The sun sets on Torah on Tap
On Wednesday, June 18, the last Torah on Tap of the season took place at the home of Marcy and Paul Terkeltaub. Co-hosted by Lisa and Murray Rosenbach, the 25 people who attended ranged in age from 24 to ‘80-something.’ Since its inception, the discussions during...
12th Melton graduation in Tidewater
When this year’s nine Melton graduates received their certificates, they joined a group of 180 adults in Tidewater who have completed the first two years of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning. The students, who took 60 class sessions at the Simon...
From corporate law to the Capitol to caramel corn: Jody Wagner’s journey continues
Wafting through the air on 31st St. near the corner of Atlantic Avenue, stronger than the smell of the ocean and more enchanting than the aroma of suntan lotion, is the scent of freshly popped popcorn. That memorable smell draws people into Jody’s—the gourmet popcorn...
Kabbalat Kaboom: Celebrating the Fourth on a Friday
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—Part God Bless America, part Shabbat Shalom, the Fourth of July this year falls on a Friday. In this land of religious freedom, how do we plan to observe both? As the sun sets over the “fruited plain,” will we be lighting Shabbat candles and...
Family loves Camp JCC hosting Israeli counselors
When Israeli born Cheni Alofer and her husband Sam told their children they were taking a trip to visit family in Israel this June, their son Aaron said, “Will that mean we will miss Camp JCC?” Aaron, a rising first grader at HAT, and his younger sister Natali, will...
Visiting professor at ODU
This summer will see the arrival of Professor Joseph R. (Joe) Hodes who will begin the Fall semester at Old Dominion University in the History Department teaching three courses. Currently a visiting professor at Tulane University where he has been teaching The Arab...
Exploring Jewish Morocco
I grew up in Israel of the 1950’s and 1960’s when peace with an Arab state was even beyond a dream. Thus the opportunity to visit an Arab country moves me deeply. Through the years I have had the good opportunity to go on missions with fellow rabbis to Egypt, Jordan...
Celebrating the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater class of 2014
Every year comes the bittersweetness of Hebrew Academy’s graduation, a culmination of hard work and determination by children, most who have attended since preschool. While parents and teachers both kvell over the fact that these children have reached this milestone,...
Yom Hazikaron Commemoration and Day of Learning at HAT
A meaningful day of commemoration and learning on Yom Hazikaron, Israeli Memorial Day, was held on May 5, 2014/5 Iyar 5774 at the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Konikoff Center of Learning for students and the community. Beginning at 8:30 am, students, faculty, former...
Zohar Ben Moshe recognized as Jewish Educator of the Year
The 2014 Jewish Education Night awards ceremony included the awarding of Jewish Educator of the Year to Zohar Ben Moshe, Hebrew Academy of Tidewater’s Judaic studies teacher. Jewish Education Night is an annual event that pays tribute to all Jewish educators in the...
Guess Who’s Coming to Shabbas wraps up first year
Congregation Beth El has many programs that are focused on building community within the congregation. One of the newest and most successful of these programs completed its first year with the fourth edition of “Guess Who’s Coming to Shabbas” on Friday, May 16. The...
Marilyn Moranha and the Senior Club at the JCC
The Mary and Avalon S. Krukin Award for Senior Adults was presented to Marilyn Moranha at the Simon Family JCC’s annual meeting on Monday, May 19. Morhana received the award because of the time and energy she devotes to the seniors at the JCC. This is her sixth year...
Planning for the future
Estate planning is the process by which an individual or family arranges for the administration and transfer of assets in anticipation of their incapacitation or death. When contemplating such transfers, it has been said that every parent has one additional child to...
There’s a party going on right here
The scene outside the large group exercise room in the Simon Family JCC’s gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 am is quiet and generally serene. Members of all ages are concentrating on their weightlifting sets and getting heart healthy on the various cardiovascular...
Alene Jo Kaufman retires from HAT
It’s the end of a “double chai” era. Thirty-six years in which Alene Jo Kaufman led, taught and touched the lives of hundreds of the community’s children and families at the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Konikoff Center of Learning and Strelitz Early Childhood Center...