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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...
A tribe of Jewish restaurateurs and food entrepreneurs have been hunting and gathering meals on behalf of the local community and to address food insecurity for most of their adult lives. These individuals and their food businesses have especially made a variety of...
Hanukkah is celebrated each year when the days are short and the nights are long and dark. For eight whimsical nights, family and friends gather to enjoy precious time together. Delicious meals are prepared, prayers are said, and children play games while the menorah...
In what seems to be an ever enduring global pandemic, tour guides across the world are devising creative ways for visitors to experience other countries without packing a thing. United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Society of Professionals (SoP) recently embarked...
As we approach the end of 2020, I believe most of us can agree that it has been tumultuous and that 2021 cannot come soon enough! Still, in the face of unprecedented challenges, our Jewish community remains strong, engaged, and committed. The strength of our community...
After a seven-year recess, the Florence Melton School of Adult Learning is back in session. The name Melton is associated with innovation, activism, and invention. Florence Melton disrupted the footwear industry when she founded the R.G. Barry Corporation with her...
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater & the Simon Family JCC’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival 2020–2021* *events shown only through December 16 All events are open to the community with RSVP or tickets required and will take place virtually...
Summer camp at the JCC has always been more than a break from school routines and homework. This year, however, playing outdoors, finding a best friend, singing songs together, and tackling new challenges at Camp JCC will be a reprieve from virtually everything and...
As the bus barreled across the Thracian plain towards Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, it followed a five-hour straight course west from my temporary home of Burgas, an ancient port on the shores of the Black Sea. Along this route, 9,000 years of civilization have etched...
Every day from Friday, December 11 through Friday, December 18, there will be a different "Hanukkah Hot Deal," including discounts for Camp JCC, the Cardo Cafe, the JCC, Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, Melton School, and more. Visit the UJFT Facebook page and...
Matthew Weinstein has led a fulfilled and busy life. He managed to find success and make an impact through his work, community service, and commitment to family. Not one to let retirement slow him down, Weinstein now puts his corporate healthcare experience to good...
Former Gomley Chesed Synagogue in Portsmouth has been successfully reimagined as a vibrant hub of Hebrew learning. The Churchland site is the home to Toras Chaim, a lively Jewish community affiliated with United Jewish Federation of Tidewater that stresses Derech...
Brith Sholom did not let the pandemic stop them from taking care of their community. Forced to think out of the box by having its November food drive for Jewish Family Service’s Food Pantry in the parking lot instead of during an in-person meeting, members drove up...
Programming for Tidewater BBYO has been a challenge, to say the least. With national BBYO restrictions in place to ensure the teens’ safety, including no indoor gatherings, members have had to be creative and patient. Meeting at the mercy of the weather has probably...
On a beautiful, warm November evening, the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus’s parking lot turned into a place for families to gather for Havdalah. Called Havadallah on the Lot, the event was organized and led by PJ Library in Tidewater. As cars arrived, each family...
A successful Community Campaign is essential to ensure the strength and well-being of Jewish Tidewater’s agencies and community members. Understanding that the longer the COVID-19 crisis drags on, the greater will become the needs of Jewish Tidewater’s community...
Students at Strelitz International Academy now know that learning about politics can be fun. As an IB Candidate School, SIA students learn about the world through inquiries, interviews, investigations, discussions, projects, and research. During the recent U.S....
Elaine Luria has held onto her Second Congressional District seat, defeating Scott Taylor. Luria is a Jewish member of the so-called “Gang of Nine,” a group of moderate Democrats with national security backgrounds who were elected in 2018 to seats that had previously...
A free, 10-day trip to Israel sounds like an easy sell. College students live to drink beer, eat ethnic foods, and hook up with peers on the beach, any beach. It might surprise you to know that convincing Jewish kids to indulge in Israel’s unique magic on someone...
In its 28th year, Jewish Family Service’s annual Hanukkah Gift Program is now underway. The first night of Hanukkah is December 10. Like nearly everything, the holiday is going to look a little different this year. Still, JFS’s core mission will remain the same:...
All events are open to the community with RSVP or tickets required and will take place virtually until further notice. For more information about the Festival, to register, sponsor, or volunteer, contact Patty Shelanski at 757-452-3184 or Pshelanski@ujft.org or...