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Prior to coming to Old Dominion University, I taught at Elizabethtown College in central Pennsylvania. It was there that I met one of my dearest friends, also named Amy, who is one of the college chaplains. When she told me that she was taking her students on an...
Last September, a room filled with members of our community joined together to kick off our 2019 Community Campaign and Arts + Ideas season. The results? An accelerated campaign with a significantly increased level of community support and our ability to meet...
On Sunday, August 18, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater took the first step in creating a coordinated community book burial. This came in response to Rabbi Michael Panitz, who contacted UJFT with a need to bury Temple Israel’s unused Holy books. The act of burying...
Is the suffering of others our own? How do we make emotions explicit and use them positively to teach? Why is it so difficult to accept certain facts? How can history be controversial? These were just a few of an abundance of framing questions that educators...
“My life is a journey of blessings. I am always growing through open-minded, whole-hearted living and am grateful to have the freedom to express love without fear.” —Elyse Tapper Cardon Elyse and David Cardon’s home life is a visual reflection of their love of each...
In some homes, art sits center stage, which is why we’ve made it the focus of this section. Elyse and David Cardon’s Virginia Beach home, for example, is all about expression—art, fun, function, music, entertainment, and love. Artists Jodie Frieden, Abbie Korman, Ivor...
Ask anyone to describe Robert G. “Bob” Liverman, and it’s not long before you’ll hear the word “mensch.” “He’s always doing good things for the Jewish people. He’s always been a mensch, a wonderful human being and Jew,” says his great-nephew Kirk Levy. Liverman, who...
Having the best week of their lives, the members of Team Virginia Beach represented the Simon Family JCC very well at the 2019 JCC Maccabi Games & ArtsFest in Detroit, Michigan, August 4-9. Beyond making many new friends from around the U.S. and the world, the...
If you ever asked my husband Kenny or me if his daughter Mallory would go on a Birthright Israel program—without her family – we would have just laughed and shrugged it off. We wouldn’t even dare to dream such a thing. Mallory has Fragile X syndrome which affects her...
Jewish Holidays 5780 All holidays begin at sundown on the evening before the date listed. Religious Holidays 5780 Rosh Hashanah September 30–October 1, 2019, Jewish New Year Yom Kippur October 9, 2019, Day of Atonement Sukkot October 14–20, 2019, Feast of Tabernacles...
Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:19) In May of 1939, the S.S. St. Louis reached the shore of Miami, Fla. On board the ship were 937 Jewish European refugees, including two-year-old Joachim Hirsch. All of them had applied...
When most people think about celebrating a big occasion, they think parties and trips. But when Brad Bangel and his sister, Nancy Bangel, were considering how to mark their parents’ 70th anniversary, they went into a totally different direction. They thought Torah....
Nearly 100 community members cycled through the Leon Family Gallery on the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus on April 30 to tour the exhibit, Home: Lens on Israel, with David Schizer, CEO of the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Home showcases JDC’s impact...
On May 7, in the rainbow glow of a giant Chihuly sculpture at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, the Women’s Cabinet of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, held its annual Spring Lunch and Installation. Janet Mercadante, outgoing chair,...
While April 1, 2019 wasn’t your typical April Fool’s Day filled with children’s pranks, laughter abounded at a merged UJFT Women’s Cabinet and Women’s Young Adult Division event, hosted by Leora Drory. For the first time, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s...
Through The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Shlichim (emissaries) program, two Israelis are spending the summer at the Simon Family JCC’s JCamp. Always a special aspect of camp, each year, Shlichim learn about life in Tidewater, as well as about other parts of the U.S....
JCamp’s new director, Eliana Rohrig, has spent a lot of time at camp—as a camper, counselor, and division head—primarily at Camp Ramah in Nyack, N.Y. She spent a semester studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, served on Chabad’s General Board in Binghamton, N.Y....
Just as watermelon and humid nights are perfect pairings, so too, are summer days and campers. But, while summer shows up each year, ready or not, attending camp takes some planning—which explains why this section is called, Getting Ready for Summer. Each year, I...
The annual Stein Family College Scholarship of the Tidewater Jewish Foundation was awarded to Faith Rose White, a soon-to-be graduate of Norfolk’s Maury High School. White is the 11th recipient of the four-year scholarship of up to $10,000 per year that is provided to...
Andrew Nusbaum and Eric Miller departed Norfolk on March 31 to attend their first study mission with the National Young Leadership Cabinet in Russia. The National Young Leadership Cabinet, an elite leadership-training program of the Jewish Federations of North...
Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Israel’s longest serving consul-general in New York, overseeing the operations of the Jewish State’s largest diplomatic mission around the globe, will be in Tidewater as part of Israel Today. Israel Today: Wednesday, May 8, 7:30 pm, Ohef Sholom...
The Helen G. Gifford Foundation was established in 1997 with a mission to support local Jewish organizations, the arts, and art education. A lifelong area resident, Helen was born in Portsmouth to Belle and Issac Goodman, owners of The Famous, a women’s fashion store....
On Sunday, May 12 we celebrate Mother’s Day—honoring moms, grandmothers, and, in fact, all important women in our lives…including, in my case, daughters! Our first article is an interview with Bill Hearst about his inspiring and always gracious mom, Helen Gifford, of...
If Rabbi Joseph Telushkin could change America in just one way, he would start at home with the words that parents speak to their children. Many children earn praise for things like academic achievement, athletics, artistic performance, and even their physical...
The Tidewater Jewish Foundation (TJF) recently celebrated a successful second year of its LIFE & LEGACY program. During the community celebration in March, one set of donors, Alyssa and Jonathan Muhlendorf, shared their reasons for giving. The following is an...
Hineni, HERE I AM! For those who don’t know, Hineni!, is the young leadership program of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. Designed 10 years ago to build and nourish leaders, Hineni! is a highly successful program that takes place on alternate years. Hineni!...
Tidewater’s young Jewish adults showed up ready to party at YAD’s Purim party on Saturday, March, 23. It took no time for the popular ‘DJ Richard’ to get the party going with dance hits, games, and glow necklaces as young adults celebrated the festive holiday. This...
This is an open thank you letter to our community, the Tidewater Jewish community, for its unwavering support and care for Jewish communities around the world. This care takes into account our strong values of tikkun olam, the concept of leaving the world a better...
Dear Readers, Passover is in the air. The kinda light, kinda panic feeling arrives each year along with the blossoms and warmer temps. The sense that something good, something unifying, uplifting, and yes, even that something happy is about to take place, comes with...
Community gathers to celebrate second year of the LIFE & LEGACY™ program Tidewater Jewish Foundation (TJF) honored its community partners and donors at the 2nd annual LIFE & LEGACY event on Monday, March 18. The evening celebrated the success of the...
Its dark and cold, and practically the middle of the night. It’s 4:30 am on Wednesday, January 16 and this morning, I’m standing with a group of eight others, ready to embark on a journey unlike any other I’ve experienced. To be honest, as we load the minibus, which...
WASHINGTON—In a speech on the House Floor on Thursday, March 7, Congresswoman Elaine Luria (VA-02), a 20-year Navy veteran, spoke in support of a House resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry. The resolution passed later that day, 407–23. A...