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...
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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...
Virginia Arts Festival’s education outreach makes learning leap to life
For more than 20 years, the Virginia Arts Festival has brought renowned artists from around the globe to Hampton Roads. In addition to the packed schedule of world-class performances, the Festival reaches out to students each year. In fact, during the past school...
Dance about Kristallnacht inspired by UJFT Holocaust Commission conference
Over many decades of creating choreography that conveys an emotional story, Elbert Watson, Norfolk Academy dance director, has covered many searing topics. Most notably, he has developed dances that explore aspects of African- American history, from slavery to the...
Setting all students up for success at Hebrew Academy of Tidewater
Jewish Proverb: “Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.” While a Jewish Day School experience is often considered a homogeneous education, within every group of students, a range of abilities always exists. Hebrew Academy of Tidewater’s goal, therefore, is...
Beth El welcomes the Park Place School
Walking through Congregation Beth El’s education wing on a weekday, one might be surprised to hear the sounds of violins. The source of the music is from students who attend the Park Place School, located at Beth El since August. Each of the 66 second through sixth...
Jewish Family Service wraps up 10th Annual Week of Healthy Living
Sunday, May 4 was a picture-perfect morning with clear blue, sunny skies and comfortable temperatures for the more than 450 runners and walkers who gathered at 24th Street Park at the Virginia Beach oceanfront for Jewish Family Service’s 10th Annual Run, Roll or...
Holocaust Commission program to be featured at Yad Vashem conference
Two of the suitcases Elena Barr Baum will take with her to Israel when she travels there in July are pre-packed, and not her own. They belong to the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, and are filled with reproductions of mementos...
Temple Sinai names new rabbi
The membership of Temple Sinai of Newport News has approved hiring Severine Sokol as its new rabbi. After a congregational meeting April 27, where Sokol was approved unanimously, Congregation president Paul Brindza praised Temple members for their support in bringing...
Cantor’s loss leaves Jewish Republicans bereft
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Eric Cantor’s defeat in one constituency, Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, triggered mourning among another: Republican Jews. Since 2009, Rep. Cantor (R-Va.) has been the only Jewish Republican in Congress. After the 2010 GOP takeover of the...
Jewish Major League baseball cards feature current and classic players
The seventh edition of Jewish Major Leaguer Baseball Cards—a 50-card set largely focused on events in baseball involving Jewish players over the last four years is now available. The 2010 edition, the fifth update, was thought to be the last. But popular demand,...
The Deloreans are coming!
Saturday, June 14, 7 pm, Ohef Sholom Temple “Go back to the ’80s” at Ohef Sholom Temple’s annual casino-style event, which will feature the ‘80s tribute band, The Deloreans. It’s been said, “when you go to a Deloreans show, you feel like you’re actually back in the...
Israel Fest 2014: Amazing Crowds, Amazing Day
The Simon Family JCC’s Annual Israel Fest, presented by Charles Barker Automotive, was the biggest to date, with about 1,800 people enjoying the many activities on Sunday, May 18. This was the most extensive, expansive and enthralling Israel Fest at the JCC, featuring...
Successful Iron Dome program wraps up JCC’s Celebrate Israel series
A presentation describing the engineering mechanics behind the Iron Dome anti-missile system used by Israel to protect its citizens could have been overly complicated or less than entertaining. In a program about the subject, held at Regent University Theatre on...
Tidewater Jewish rock star wows crowd
Ohef Sholom hosted “Cantor Wally Live!” an outdoor celebration of Jewish music last month. A picture perfect day, families with young children gathered outside to hear Cantor Wally play original and classical Jewish tunes on the steps of Ohef Sholom’s sanctuary...
A shift of outlook is all it took
The moment that shifted my outlook on Israel was when I had the honor to attend a presentation by StandWithUs. Hen and Shay, who toured the United States as part of “Israeli Soldiers Stories,” spoke at my school. Their testimonies touched my heart in a way I never...
Simon Family JCC holds Annual Meeting
Community leaders, members and staff gathered for the 61st Annual Meeting of the Simon Family JCC on Monday, May 19. The meeting recognized Terri Sarfan for her successful two-year term as president, welcomed Marty Einhorn as incoming president, and bestowed awards on...
Beauty and benevolence abound at Women’s Division Spring Luncheon
The beauty, subtlety, elegance and graciousness of the Jewish women gathered in the sun-lit room at the Museum of Contemporary Art on May 20 outshone the stunning Dale Chihuly glass chandelier that hung from the ceiling of the gallery. More than 70 attended the annual...
In Mideast visit, Pope Francis makes symbolic gestures to both sides
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Perhaps the most lasting image from Pope Francis’ trip to Israel and the West Bank will be the pontiff praying, eyes closed, with his head against a wall. It wasn’t the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest site and a necessary stop for visiting...
A new gauge of global anti-Semitism
NEW YORK (JTA)—The Anti-Defamation League’s Global 100 Index of Anti-Semitism is the broadest public opinion survey of attitudes toward Jews ever conducted. It is one of the most important efforts we have undertaken in our history as an organization. The survey was...
UJFT 2014 Annual Campaign coming to a close
As of late May, the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater 2014 Annual Campaign received just over $4 million in donations from about 1,500 individual donors. Gifts to the UJFT enrich and touch the lives of Jews, and many others, in Tidewater, in the United States, in...
Winning essays awarded at Ohef Sholom Temple Religious School
For his Bar Mitzvah project, Bradley Friedman chose to administer the First Annual Ohef Sholom Temple Religious School Essay Contest. All students in grades one through 10 were invited to participate. The topic for this year’s contest was: “Our Temple was founded in...
HAT student wins 2014 Israel Poster Contest
Leo Kamer had a selection of cool facts about Israeli innovations to choose from as inspiration for an illustrated entry in the area’s 2014 Israel Poster Contest. The one the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater fifth grader liked the best, though, had to do with a bicycle....
TJF celebrates 30th anniversary, Simon Family Legacy Society and retirement of its president and CEO
The Tidewater Jewish Foundation celebrated its 30th anniversary, acknowledged the members of the Simon Family Legacy Society and honored Philip Rovner on his retirement from the Foundation after 18 years of service on Thursday, April 24. Approximately 150 people...
Chinese and Kosher?
After several months of discussions and preparation, Beth Sholom Village was host to a family dinner with congregants of B’nai Israel. The concern that Beth Sholom Village is not at a level of Kashrut for many of the Orthodox community has been around for some time....
Community supports Israel at Independence Day event
The Tidewater community showed its support for Israel at a celebratory event held on May 6 in honor of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day. The Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, in partnership with the Simon Family JCC’s...
