JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Ministry is advancing a plan to send $1 million in emergency aid to Houston’s flood-hit Jewish community. In announcing the plan Monday, Sept. 4, Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett called it an “unprecedented”...
Other News
Archives
Tidewater Jewish community contributes to Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund
Hurricane Harvey bombarded the Gulf Coast on August 26 with destructive winds and devastating flooding. The storm caused catastrophic destruction throughout the city of Houston and surrounding areas. The need for immediate relief and long-term aid continues to rise,...
A Jewish ‘Dreamer’ is scared, but refuses to despair
BOSTON (JTA)—At 15, Elias Rosenfeld became a “Dreamer.” At the time, the Venezuela native was attending Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in Miami, where he had lived since he was 6 years old, when his Jewish family moved to South Florida from Caracas. His mother...
Nadiv, Young Men’s Giving Circle, caps off successful first year
When we saw the JCC campers playing with oversized Connect4 and checkers boards on the blacktop, an entire year of experimentation and hard work came full circle. Yes, all the effort was worth it. In fall 2016, YAD—United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Young Adult...
Annual Campaign kickoff features David Hazony
Tuesday, September 12, 6:30 pm Sandler Family Campus United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s 2018 Annual Campaign kicks off with a cocktail reception and keynote address by acclaimed author and lecturer, David Hazony. An American-born Israeli writer, translator, and...
HAT begins a new school year proclaiming, “We’re more than a school, we’re family!”
As Hebrew Academy of Tidewater and Strelitz Early Childhood families enter the building this year, they are greeted with friendly smiles, photos of engaged children, and a new bulletin board that announces, “There’s no place like the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater.” On...
Tidewater teens in Israel
A pledge brother at Clemson asked me to go on Birthright on a national trip, Shorashim—the only Birthright trip organizer that has Israeli soldiers for the entire 10 days. Those seven Israelis were some of the greatest people I’ve ever met. In the Negev, we stayed in...
Beth Sholom Village to add performance stage to its active community room
The Abisl Theater will present entertainment with a “Jewish Twist” It has hosted everything from bingo games to women’s auxiliary lunches, but by summer 2018, what is known today as The Pincus Paul Social Hall, named for a late benefactor, will also house the area’s...
Shabbat sermon: A remarkable Bar Mitzvah ceremony on a day of concern
I wasn’t here at Beth El last Shabbat, a day that brought concern and anxiety to us Jews in the Commonwealth and beyond. Miriam and I were in Florida so we could be with her father as he celebrated the 80th anniversary of his bar mitzvah. He put aside his walker and...
Rosh Hashanah
As this High Holiday season approaches, a fresh New Year feels incredibly important for 5778. The news around the globe, nation, and our very own state, continues to have most of us on the edge of our seats and not far from our trusted news sources. Soon, however,...
Sunday School in the 21st century
In Spring 2017, the Ohef Sholom Temple board of directors unanimously approved a proposal to welcome independent households to one year of enrollment in the Temple’s Reform Jewish Sunday morning classes. An “independent household” is a family that expresses its Jewish...
Advocating for children in school
In preparation for the school year and the Jewish High Holy Days, it’s important to be proactive in communicating with faculty and administrators about these holidays so Jewish students have the opportunity to observe without penalty. While schools may try their best...
Director to discuss film about Israel Philharmonic’s fascinating beginning: Orchestra of Exiles
In anticipation of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance at the Virginia Arts Festival on April 2, the Community Relations Council and the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, with the Simon Family JCC, present the documentary...
Simon Family JCC’s 21st Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film thanks sponsors
Wintry weather, including ice, snow, winds and subfreezing temperatures couldn’t keep movie fans from attending some of the festival’s final events as The Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Alma* and Howard Laderberg, ended its 21st continuous season. More...
Tidewater is going to Israel this summer.… Want to come?
Maybe you’ve never been.… Maybe you’ve been a dozen or more times.… The question is: Is this your summer to visit Israel? The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater will bring a mission to Israel this coming June. Led by co-chairs Jodi Klebanoff, Bonnie and David...
Community Relations Council reacts to Virginia Beach Public Schools
With regard to the decision of the Virginia Beach Public Schools to hold Saturday make-up classes, the Community Relations Council, on behalf of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater leaders, has sent a letter to the Superintendent of Virginia Beach Public Schools and...
Will God have a say in Super Sunday outcome?
BALTIMORE (JTA) -- Rabbi Daniel Alter expects some added fervency during daily prayer services at the Denver Academy of Torah in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. Alter, the academy's head of school, recalls that when the Colorado Rockies faced the Boston Red Sox...
Meet the Presidents
Burle Stromberg President, Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Profession Assistant City Attorney of the City of Portsmouth Education Virginia Tech, B.S., Public Administration (1981) University of Dayton School of Law, Juris Doctor (1984) Family Married to Robin Drucker...
Free film documents the Israel Philharmonic’s dramatic beginning
Orchestra of Exiles, documentary Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7 pm • Sandler Family Campus, Free and open to the community In anticipation of the Virginia Arts Festival performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on April 2 in Virginia Beach, the Community Relations Council...
ChavuRAH!
A group of Ohef Sholom parents and children came together on Sunday, Jan. 12 to celebrate the holiday of Tu B’shevat, the New Year for the Trees. While not planting trees, planting was the theme of the day. Master Carpenter Jim Douglass made a beautiful planter for...
Tallwood High School students reflect on Israel experience
To take 10 students overseas alone for any length of time seems like a task for someone who has a screw loose. To compound that craziness by making it a three week trip to Washington D.C., New York City, Jerusalem, Modi’in, Jaffa, Haifa, Masada, and Tel Aviv is the...
Community gets its most wanted crime information at FBI program
Walking away from the FBI’s Community Relations Executive Seminar Training, attendees of the event, which took place at the Simon Family JCC on Sunday, Jan. 12, held in their hands a nicely printed certificate confirming their attendance, and tried to grasp in their...
Team goes beyond care
Not all cases are the same, and so, not all needs are the same. The recent case of a 38-year-old male palliative care patient of Freda H. Gordon Hospice and Palliative Care of Tidewater is a perfect example. Diagnosed with stomach cancer in October, this relatively...
Hebrew Academy parents bond over baking
Jewish education is not just for kids. Marissa Kempner, Patti Seeman and Ashley Lemke, active parents of Hebrew Academy’s parent organization (Hakesher) recently spearheaded a special challah baking class for HAT and Strelitz preschool room parents. The results proved...
Heart and “soles”
It was rainy and cold on Thursday, Jan. 2 as Ohef Sholom Temple began its second night of hosting the weeklong Norfolk Emergency Shelter Program (NEST) with the help of its neighbor, Ghent United Methodist Church. Sadly, one homeless man arrived in the rain and cold...
Elli’s love for Israel extends to area teens
Elli Friedman spent her childhood and early teen years thinking she loved Israel. But that love, the 17-year-old now realizes, came about because that was what she was always taught she should feel. It didn’t come from the tangible connection that’s held her in its...
Tidewater Jewish Women come together for a Sunday afternoon “Chick Flick” and more
Nearly 60 women attended the recent joint United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Women’s Outreach and Jewish Women’s Salon event held at the Sandler Family Campus. The third annual “Girls’ Afternoon at the Movies” featured the 2013 award-winning film, Dorfman in...
The Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Alma* and Howard Laderberg
Turning 21 was a celebration at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts when the Simon Family JCC’s Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Howard and Alma* Laderberg, held its Opening Night on Saturday, Jan. 18. More than 350 people attended to see The...
Israeli celebrity chef injects hummus, ‘balagan’ into Jewish heart of Paris
PARIS (JTA)—In the elegant silence of a narrow street near the River Seine, David Moyal takes a breath of fresh winter air and enters a noisy restaurant in the French capital. Inside Miznon, he is transported to another world, filled with the cacophony of Hebrew...
Israel: Jewish and Democratic
This is one of five op-eds that appeared in The Times of Israel (and now, Jewish News). It is reprinted with permission. Gil Troy is part of the Community Relations Council’s Israel Today Forum. Even nations need recognition, right? We exist in the world as...
At Tu b’Shvat, digging for spiritual growth — January 16
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—While my neighbors were putting their Christmas trees to the curb, in what seems like a ritual of replacement, I was preparing to plant for Tu b’Shvat. My friend Freda recently presented me a cutting from an Angel’s trumpet—a small tree with...
Teaching in today’s modern classrooms
Every year Hebrew Academy and the Strelitz Early Childhood Center administration join hundreds of other educators in Richmond at the Annual Conference of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools. “Continuing education programs like these,” says Rabbi Mordechai...