Southeastern Virginia: Chesapeake • Norfolk • Portsmouth • Suffolk • Virginia Beach
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Stephanie Peck While many area synagogues hire off-duty police officers or sheriff’s deputies during High Holiday services, Michael Goldsmith, regional security advisor for Secure Community Network, emphasizes the role each congregant plays in recognizing and...
Stephanie Peck At first glance, Rabbi Shlomo Eisenberg, B’nai Israel Congregation’s new rabbi, looks like a yeshiva student. Tall and lean, he has a generous smile and a warm welcome. After a few minutes of conversation, however, his composure and focus suggest a...
Lisa Richmon Few would deny that Jenny Sachs can hold her own. She’s a mom, practicing psychologist, and singer in a five-person band with her husband Matthew, a child and adult psychiatrist. During the pandemic, Sam, their 11-year-old son and only child, was...
Stephanie Peck Ten teen athletes from Tidewater travelled to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to participate in the JCC Association of North America’s 41st Maccabi Games last month. Along with Tom Edwards, athletics director for the Simon Family JCC, these teens braved the...
On Saturday, July 29, I took my seven-year-old twin daughters to the large Gome Junction protest, the northernmost protest against the judicial reforms in Israel. These protests have been occurring for 30 weeks in a row at junctions and in cities across Israel. Since...
Much has changed since Beth Sholom Village opened its doors in 1980, but the tradition of caring has not. Among those changes: The name of the organization changed from Beth Sholom Home of Eastern Virginia, an assisted living community was added in 2004, and services...
The Guide to Jewish Living in Tidewater 2023
Originating in Israel, Gaga is a sport like dodgeball, played in a circular pit where players hit and roll the ball to eliminate opposing players. The Simon Family JCC built its first Gaga pit nearly 10 years ago to entertain students and campers on the Sandler Family...
This year marks 75 years of commitment by Jewish Family Service to serve the community. For more than three quarters of a century, thousands of people have received help from the family services agency. Part of the agency’s success is the legacy of its board of...
Off to an exceptional start, Camp JCC’s campers and counselors are quickly finding their rhythm – building solid relationships throughout the camp community. One key to Camp JCC’s initial success is the dedicated team of counselors who seamlessly settled into their...
A luncheon to honor and express appreciation to Delegate Anne Ferrell Tata for her leadership and efforts in passing the first piece of legislation in Virginia aimed at fighting antisemitism – adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working...
Dear Readers, What age qualifies as a senior? It seems like the answer depends on where you inquire. AARP, for example, says its organization is dedicated to people 50 and over. According to Medicare, however, a senior is 65 years old or older. But anyone 55 can...
Fun fact: Johnny Cash listened to local folk musician Bob Zentz’s debut album Mirror and Changes and praised it as one of the finest things he’d heard by any artist. The album, which features The Ramblin’ Conrad Story, is now on Smithsonian Folk-Legacy (now under...
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is offering a virtual journalism fellowship for high school-age (14-18 years old) Jewish teenagers. This remote fellowship encourages teens of all backgrounds, identities, genders, cultures, and connections to Judaism to apply. For more...
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 7 - 8 pm, Ohef Sholom Temple, Free Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle is the most monumental operatic experience ever created. Comprised of four epic operas, the Ring Cycle tells the story of Norsegods, heroes, and a magical ring of power. Since its...
Sunday morning, July 24, residents in the Little Neck community of Virginia Beach woke up to find antisemitic fliers distributed throughout multiple neighborhoods. The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) was...
Music and arrival, 11:30 am Dedication, 12 pm The day’s festivities begin with the long-anticipated dedication of the Marty Einhorn Pavilion with the program and lunch starting at noon. Alvin Wall and Jeff Chernitzer, Einhorn’s long-time business partners and friends,...
Dear Readers, A guide or directory is often an accurate barometer of how a community is faring. If the guide shrinks over the years, it stands to reason that the same is true for the community. The converse, of course, is also true. Across the nation many communities...
The trip started with a crazy coincidence. I have been director of the Holocaust Commission for 12 years, and was a volunteer for the previous 10. After working with educators, the Virginia Department of Education, and the public on Holocaust education for 22 years, I...
An article in the July 18 issue of Jewish News reported on local attorney Jeffrey Flax’s qualifying for the Masters Golf Division at the Maccabi Games in Israel. Flax returned from the competition with great news: an individual Bronze win on the U.S. Masters...
After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the JCC Maccabi Games returned for its 40th year and Team Virginia Beach descended on San Diego, La Jolla, and Del Mar, California, for five days of competition, building friendships, and continuing to build...
Why would someone with a very limited social media footprint start a podcast and hope it grows organically? Because it did. Michael Brooke, who has a bachelor’s degree in Talmudic Studies and is continuing his education in Kollel, launched his Motivation...
It was bound to happen one day… Nancy Engel, Jewish Family Service’s executive administrative assistant, retired on August 4 after serving the organization for more than 33 years. Engel’s journey didn’t start in a typical employee-employer relationship; it was...
When the Tidewater Jewish Foundation holds its executive committee meeting for the new fiscal year later this month, someone new will be at the helm. Charlie Nusbaum, who served as TJF’s vice chair, was elected in June to be the Foundation’s new chairperson. “This is...
Dear Readers, Remember when references to ‘seniors’ conjured up only images of ‘old’ people? Not anymore. Perhaps that’s why the age for qualifying as a senior keeps increasing. Those profiled in this section focus not on their age, but on living life to the fullest,...
Dr. Bruce Longman, DDS (Virginia Commonwealth University, 1960) folds his long, lean figure into a chair to talk about fitness, his career, and having a huge and loving family. Right on the cusp of his 88th birthday, Longman is a practicing dentist whose early career...
A ‘jack-of-all-businesses,’ Jack Fox is currently enjoying life flying, fishing, boating, and playing gin rummy and tennis. He also supports many projects at Ohef Sholom Temple as well as hospitals and museums/performing arts venues in Florida, where he splits his...
In August of last year, Jewish News extended best wishes and mazel tov to local attorney Jeffrey Flax for qualifying for the Masters Golf Division in the 2022 Israeli Maccabi Games (formally called The Maccabiah Games, a quadrennial Jewish Olympics). As of...
Jewish News celebrates these 2022 graduates with their families and the community. Mazel Tov on these students’ achievements and best of luck as they take their next steps. Ayden Cohn Virginia Tech Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, minor in Nuclear...
Evan Nied, a Virginia Beach teenager, has been awarded the 2022 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award from the Helen Diller Family Foundation for his work in planting trees to mitigate the disastrous effects of climate change. The $36,000 award is for his nonprofit...
David Leon became the reigning Who Knows One? champion in Tidewater when he won the Jewish Geography competition against rival contestant, Anne Fleder. Micah Hart, creator of Who Knows One?, hosted a live show at the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus of the Tidewater...
For the first time since 2019, the American Jewish Committee convened its AJC Global Forum in person. More than 1,000 people attended the conference held at Temple Emanu-El in New York City to hear from world leaders and top experts, consider tough questions, and get...