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On the Sickle’s Edge Neville Frankel Dialogos, an imprint of Lavender Ink, 2016 ISBN: 978-1-944884-10-9 474 pages, $16.95, paperback Stories based on family history are a strong current in Jewish literature. It is by remembering and retelling that we honor our loved...
Home, October 9, 2017
You won’t see anything just yet by walking into the building off Auburn Drive, but there is a major renovation underway at the Berger-Goldrich Home at Beth Sholom Village. Some of the rooms on the Sholom Unit are vacant, with those residents having been shifted to...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—American Jews overwhelmingly disapprove of President Donald Trump in just about every area, scoring him lower than his predecessor even on topics like Israel, where Jewish approval of Barack Obama was relatively low, according to an American Jewish...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The debate has gone on for weeks among rabbis and Jewish leaders: If President Donald Trump does not formally renounce white supremacists, is it still worth engaging in a conversation with him? This was on much of the Jewish community’s mind since...
A decades-long injustice to the memory of Israel’s Olympic athletes murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games was rectified this month with the dedication of a permanent memorial to their memory in the very same Munich Olympic Park, where...
The first-ever Catch-and-Release Fishing Derby at the Simon Family Jewish Community Center took place on Sunday, September 17. With more than 60 official registrants and many more family and friends as supporters and participants, the turnout exceeded expectations for...
Thursday, October 26, 7 pm Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus Want to enjoy the fragrance of yeast rising, laugh, and share community with hundreds of women, and then experience the deep satisfaction of baking a challah for Shabbat? This year, the 3rd Annual Great Big...
With the passing of Hal Sacks, Jewish News has lost a friend, advocate, historian, and visionary—along with a writer and book review editor. As a friend, Hal was always available for advice—and not timid about offering it up—even when it wasn’t requested. As an...
High Holidays, September 25, 2017
After a national search, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s board made the decision to “go local” with the appointment of Betty Ann Levin as executive vice president upon Harry Graber’s retirement in May 2018. Currently executive director of Jewish Family Service...
In the beginning… We got the first diagnosis in 2003. ADHD. Nothing to worry about there, right? Lots of kids have ADHD. Heck, even I have ADHD. But as time went on, we knew that there had to be more than just that. So, in July 2006, when Brandon was six years old, we...
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...
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...
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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
If anyone can speak about diversity in Israel, it’s Israeli diplomat, Ishmael Khaldi. An Israeli-Bedouin-Arab-Muslim, Khaldi has been a minority his entire life—from the Arab Christian school he attended in the north of Israel, to college, to his service in the...
Kyle Shideler didn’t come to Congregation Beth Chaverim on Monday, Dec. 9 to make the Tidewater Jewish community feel comfortable. He came to make audience members squirm, reciting broad statistics and showing images of terrorists and organizational tracts on a...
Four Tidewater teens attended AIPAC’s Schusterman Advocacy Institute High School Summit in November. Each year, AIPAC partners with select Jewish Day Schools, synagogues, national youth groups and teen leadership organizations to bring 400 student leaders from across...
Jewish Family Service’s 21st Annual Chanukah Gift Program was a huge success. Each year, JFS reaches out to local Jewish families in need with gifts and gift cards for their children and teens and with money for those without children. This year, the JFS staff was...
The Malcolm Rosenberg Hillel Center in Blacksburg, Va. was filled with more than 250 students on Thursday, Dec. 5 for a Thanksgivukkah celebration. Marking a time when two holidays collide, this party was referred to as #VTT hanksgivukkah. In preparation for the...
Visitors to the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus frequently see the observant, dedicated and serious demeanor of Jason Capossere, the Campus’s manager of safety and security. Beneath this professional exterior, rarely seen and largely unheralded, is Capossere’s...
For the past 30 years, Beth Sholom Village has hosted an annual “Switch Day” on Christmas, since it is a family day for a majority of BSV employees. The community has always played a role in coming together to help others, and this day is no exception when volunteers...
Martin J. Raffel is the senior vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), where he has served as the lead professional on Israel, world Jewry and international human rights for the past 26 years. He also holds the position of project director for...
(JTA)—So, you think you know what’s going on in the Jewish world? Test just how closely you followed last year’s news (and remember it) with this end-of year-news quiz. 1. Berlin’s Jewish Museum provoked controversy this year with… a) an exhibit exploring the origins...
The Young Adult Division of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, held its biggest event of the year on Saturday, Dec. 7. More than 180 people attended LIG HT IT UP, a club-themed twist on a traditional Chanukah party, held in the Cardo on the Sandler Family Campus....