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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
In a move long overdue, the United States of America has finally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Congratulations to President Trump, congratulations to people of Israel, and congratulations to everyone who prayed to see this day. Over the past 50 years,...
Sunday, Feb. 4, 2 pm First performance will be tribute to mothers and fathers Lorraine Fink’s iconic artwork hangs on the walls of many Tidewater homes and galleries. A series of designs entitled “Seven Days of Creation” is permanently displayed at the Sandler Family...
Educator and editor, Rachel Fish, visited Tidewater in early November, making stops at local high schools, universities, and other public forums along the way. Fish, associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, began her trip...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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....
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...
The “Bar Mitzvah boy” did not receive a fountain pen. There was no sheet cake shaped like a Torah scroll. No band played too loudly, and no one raided a 401k plan to pay for the event. And yet, when two of Tidewater’s Masorti/ Conservative congregations, Kehillat Bet...
Just when you think it can’t get more meaningful, it does. This year’s Yom Hashoah program, sponsored by the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater at Ohef Sholom Temple on Sunday, April 27, was another poignant and powerful tribute to those...
NEW YORK (JTA)—A lot of people around the world hate the Jews. That’s the main finding of the Anti- Defamation League’s largest-ever worldwide survey of anti-Semitic attitudes. The survey, released Tuesday, May 13, found that 26 percent of those polled —representing...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—An array of Jewish groups criticized a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing prayers at town hall meetings. The 5–4 decision along conservative- liberal lines handed down Monday, May 5 reversed a lower appeals court decision in favor of a lawsuit...
Madeline Budman, who was the 2014 recipient of the Ben Topus “Ruach” Award at NFTY-MAR’s (North America Federation of Temple Youth-Mid Atlantic Region) Spring Kallah, Saturday, April 26. The award is given to the senior who demonstrates leadership while not serving as...
Sunday, June 1, 3 pm Rabbi Israel Zoberman , founding rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, will celebrate his 40th ordination anniversary at the synagogue next month. Born in 1945 in Chu, Kazakhstan (USSR) to Polish Holocaust survivors who had met in...
Two gripping stories of disaster and the relief efforts that came to the aid of those affected were shared with members of the Maimonides Society on Monday, March 31. Danny Pins, Joint Distribution Committee executive officer and director of Africa and Asia Special...
A meaningful and unique program to allow students to connect with their Jewish heritage, their community and to strengthen relationships across the generations, BINA High School held its first Grandparents & Grandfriends Day on Monday, March 10. It was also an...
Strelitz four-year-olds through Hebrew Academy fifth grade families celebrated good times at the Pasta Dinner and Bingo Night earlier this year. Held in the Sandler Family Campus multi-purpose room, the affair is a social tradition shared by board members, faculty and...
Congregation Beth El’s Sisterhood held its annual Sisterhood Shabbat on Saturday, March 28. The Sisterhood chose to emphasize the Women’s League theme for the year of “Mispachah” (family) as the message of the morning. The event was successfully chaired by Brenda...
Representatives from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) paid a special visit to the Tidewater Jewish Community earlier this spring. The group included Arnon Mantver, director of JDCIsrael, Sandy Katz, executive director of JDC International...