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...
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...
When Molly Futterman’s kindergarten class at the Strelitz International Academy kicked off their IB unit with a focus on goal setting this past January, her friends had wonderful goals for themselves. Goals included scoring more soccer goals, learning to ride a bike...
Dear Readers, The medical profession has devoted tremendous resources to battling and preventing the COVID-19 virus since early 2020. Rightly so, vaccinations, masks, lockdowns, new treatments, and social distancing have dominated the world’s attention. But,...
Through the Virginia Beach-based Wagner Kapoor Research Institute, local ophthalmologists and vitreoretinal surgeons Alan L. Wagner, MD, FACS, FICS, FASRS, AME, and Kapil G. Kapoor, MD, FACS, FICS, are conducting trials of an FDA-approved study into gene therapy to...
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.
Sometimes, a topic touches so close to one’s heart that it’s impossible to ignore it or turn away. On Wednesday, June 1, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Women’s Cabinet hosted its annual Spring Lunch at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach. The...
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC joined Jewish organizations across North America for Chalk Over Hate, an initiative of Artists 4 Israel to fight antisemitism through public art on Friday, June 3. “As the CEO of Artists 4 Israel, I am...
In late April, Annie Sandler, along with eight other board members and staffers of the JDC (Joint Distribution Committee) and student volunteers from Active Jewish Teens (AJT), traveled to Poland to visit Ukrainian refugees. The group had a rigorous schedule, first...
Dear Readers, A couple of weeks ago, it seemed that everywhere I turned, people were talking about graduations. Were there more than usual, or were we all just so excited to have proper ceremonies at the appropriate time and not the drive-by celebrations of 2020?...
SIA graduates will attend the following middle school programs this fall: Cape Henry Collegiate, Norfolk Collegiate School, Norfolk Academy, Old Donation School, and Princess Anne Middle. SIA is an International Baccalaureate World School. Back row: Leia Silverstein,...
While every day is a great day to honor, appreciate, and love our dads (and the dads in our lives: grandfathers, sons, uncles, friends, and neighbors), this Father’s Day there’s even more reason to enjoy the holiday. It is the first summer in recent years that it’s...
On the sunny morning of Friday, May 27, a group of 50 community members gathered to commemorate the upcoming Memorial Day prior to the long weekend’s start. Hosted by the local Navy Chaplains, along with the Jewish War Veterans (Post 158), the Board of Rabbis and...
The heat of the day didn’t stop Jewish Tidewater’s volunteers from coming out on the morning of Sunday, May 22 to Mikro Kodesh Cemetery in Chesapeake. That morning, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Young Adult Division, together with Chabad of Tidewater and...
Many communities have a rabbi. In the times of the Talmud, that term was deemed somewhat narrow for the many responsibilities devolved on the community leader. Another term was needed and coined: Mara D’asra, literally ‘leader of the community.’ Such a leader is Rabbi...
An active Holocaust Commission has been part of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater for more than 30 years. Among its numerous programs and projects, the Commission established a Speakers’ Bureau comprised of local Holocaust survivors. Escorted by Commission...
Dear Readers, My first connections with Jewish News took place in the mid-1970s when, as an active teen in Tidewater’s Jewish community, my name and photo would sporadically appear on its pages. As I renewed my activity in the community as a young adult, I’d find my...