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Summertime is right around the corner, with camps of every sort – day, overnight, specialty, and general – busy planning an exciting 2025 experience for campers. Whether campers stay close to home or embark on a few weeks away for an overnight experience, many...
My most recent visit to Israel started with Havdalah services in Hostage Square. The weight of October 7 – the loss, the trauma, the sadness – hangs in the air and seeps into your pores. The realization of the challenges Israelis deal with all day, every day, is...
The Konikoff Center for Learning supports Jewish education in a variety of ways in Tidewater. With a goal of nurturing inter-denominational relationships between individuals and synagogues, David Konikoff drives the direction of the Center by sponsoring programming...
The Sandler Family Campus was unrecognizable on Saturday, March 1, as partygoers stepped into Mordechai’s Time Machine for an unforgettable Purim celebration. Immersive décor transported guests across time and space — from a 1920s speakeasy to a garden of Eden. Every...
The Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, Don Leonard Scott Jr., spent a rainy afternoon last month with members of Jewish Tidewater at the home of Laura and Fred Gross. His recent trip to Israel with AIPAC was the focus of the conversation.Jeff Breit, a law...
My alarm went off on January 28 at 5:30 am. I was already up… It was at least 25 years since I had been a part of the Jewish Community Relations Council’s United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s team visiting our Virginia legislators to highlight the issues of...
“Love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage. It’s an institute you can’t disparage.”Frank Sinatra first sang these Sammy Cahn lyrics in the 1955 television production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.Here, in Tidewater, several couples celebrating special...
Editor’s note: The release of hostages held in Gaza is a developing story. At press time, the number of hostages remaining in Gaza is 79, of whom 23 are set for release during the current ceasefire; 35 are thought to be living. These three articles are just a sample...
A shared meal can lead to a good laugh, a lifelong romance, or a future business venture – and sometimes, all those things and more. ❦ For these eight couples, first dates that included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, COVID dating, and dancing at the top of...
One of the nation’s longest-running Jewish film festivals, the Virginia Festival of Jewish Film, presented by Alma & Howard Laderberg, entertains, educates, and engages the Tidewater community by presenting world-class films, repertory cinema, and programs that...
(JTA) — Daniel Sher’s voice broke as he related the latest to members of his Pacific Palisades synagogue. Kehillat Israel had just sent a message saying that its building had so far survived the devastating Palisades Fire, but, the associate rabbi noted, so much had...
The calendars we live by help to define us. If your New Year is January 1, that says something about you. If it is 1 Tishre, it indicates that you have a different perspective on our life journey through the corridors of time. If it is both…. as is probably the case...
Cheering on favorite Olympians isn’t the only fun had this summer. There’s been plenty of pool and beach time, along with trips to a variety of exotic, and even more not-so-exotic (yet perfect), destinations. For some in Tidewater, time away also incorporated a Jewish...
This year’s graduation season continues with plenty for Jewish Tidewater’s graduates and their families to celebrate.The June 3 issue of Jewish News recognized 41 outstanding graduates. We knew, however, that there were more grads for Jewish Tidewater to be proud of...
At 92, Ellie Porter is sharp as a tack with a keen memory, particularly of events 52 years ago that defined her life as a local community activist. “I was on the board of National B’nai Brith Women and a volunteer with Jewish Family Service here in Tidewater,”...
A 1977 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Jerry Miller recently received The Distinguished Graduate Award, an honor “given to living U.S. Naval Academy graduates who have made a distinctive contribution to their field or community and have demonstrated...
Blue and White Fun Run a big (and messy!) success Jewish Family Service’s 20th Annual Run, Roll, or Stroll was held on Sunday, May 19 on the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus of the Tidewater Jewish Community. In conjunction with Yom Ha’Atzmaut activities, the campus...
Laughter, camaraderie, and the unmistakable spirit of Tidewater’s Jewish community filled the Sandler Family Campus’ Fleder Multipurpose Room on the evening of May 15. The occasion was the Simon Family Legacy Society’s celebration event dedicated to honoring those who...
Biden affirms commitment to Israel and fighting antisemitism The White House’s Rose Garden provided the festive backdrop for the celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month on Monday, May 20.Approximately 250 – 300 people attended the event at the invitation of...
The best of friends starting in kindergarten, Todd Copeland and Sam Brooke went to school together, spent time in each other’s homes as young friends do, and even travelled to Israel together. But they wouldn’t have old age together, as Sam passed away in 1993, around...
“When the kids are laughing that dad doesn’t know what is going on, you’ve arrived. If kids think dad is cool, something has gone terribly wrong,” Jerry Seinfeld once mused.Describing their dads ahead of Father’s Day, these adult children may have once subscribed to...
United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Women’s Philanthropy Spring lunch took place last month in the Fleischman Lounge on the Sandler Family Campus. This annual lunch serves as a ‘Thank you’ event for members of Women’s Philanthropy who are volunteer campaign...
Resilience and determination. These two words are perfectly fitting for Evgeniia (Jenny) Kosatykh, the 2024 recipient of the Stein Family Scholarship. Kosatykh’s remarkable journey from war-torn Ukraine to the halls of Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach is an...
Volunteers are heavily relied on to help with the continued success of Jewish Family Service of Tidewater’s programs. The community of volunteers makes an incredible impact on the lives of the people served by the organization, with thousands of volunteer hours logged...
It was Saturday night.One of my lecturers and I were on a Zoom call with a bubbly and cheerful English lecturer from Mexico planning a collaboration between our students. My phone rang and I saw it was my administrative coordinator, calling at 9 pm – which only means...
Most first trips to Israel don’t begin with a tour of carnage, but Congresswoman Jen Kiggans’ did. In addition to meeting with families of hostages from the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, Kiggans and the other 14 members of Congress on the AIPAC trip spent time at Kibbutz...
Rugelach baking evening unites Jewish women in Tidewater Last month, 25 Jewish women met one evening at the home of Betsy Karotkin, UJFT Women’s Philanthropy chair, to meet and greet one another and to discuss the significant impact of Jewish women – all while...
Ambassador Brad Gordon briefed the Tidewater community on current events surrounding the Israel-Hamas war and the impact of the conflict on the region and Washington, D.C. The March event brought 300 people to the Sandler Family Campus to learn more about the war and...
Passover is a uniquely Jewish holiday, with four cups of wine, matzah, 10 plagues, and the central Seder plate. Though traditions and rituals vary among families and different cultures, the Passover story, retold each year, celebrates freedom during the Exodus from...
Looking for a seat at a seder or a way to learn more about Passover in Tidewater? Check out this listing to see all that is taking place for the holiday around town. ✡Chabad of Tidewater Passover SedersSeders are led by Rabbis Margolin and BrashevitskyFirst Night...
My family’s winter visit to Israel was a gift for my 50th birthday. This trip held special significance as my mother, born to Holocaust survivors, accompanied me, along with one of my brothers who hadn’t set foot in Israel for 31 years. Our journey was not a typical...
For day campers, camp instills lessons, skills, and experiences that are not found in most classrooms . . . including learning new games, spending days with new friends, perfecting the best- looking roasted marshmallow, and just plain having lots of fun.Overnight camp...