Uncategorized

Beth Sholom Village residents, staff, volunteers, and friends have been busy since Labor Day with a host of activities. In September, staff, family members and friends raised $10,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association through bake sales, pie throwing contests, potato and...

Gordon Robertson, chief executive officer, The Christian Broadcasting Network; Betty Ann Levin, executive vice president, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater; Benjamin Krasna, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Israel; and Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, executive vice...

After the Revolutionary War, numerous Jewish families moved to Tidewater to take advantage of the tremendous economic opportunities and central location that made this region so attractive. The emergence of these Jewish communities resulted in a variety of...

  Ohef Sholom Temple held a healing service and town hall meeting on Monday, October 29. Approximately 500 people attended the service. Many who spoke during the town hall portion of the evening represented other faith communities. They expressed condolences and...

More than most every other corner of the nation, we in Tidewater understand and appreciate those who serve in the United States Military. If we don’t have family members who have served, we certainly have friends and neighbors who have. And, so, Veteran’s Day is a day...

Be ready for the best part of being a parent, grandparenting. Now you’ll finally know what it means to be adored—and to be absolutely, completely, and helplessly in love! —Betsy and Ed Karotkin Jane Isay, author of Unconditional Love: A Guide to Navigating the Joys...

With the Simon Family JCC’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival in full swing, more than 100 different books by prominent and emerging authors are now available in a pop-up bookstore in the Simon Family JCC’s Copeland Cardo. Works from the genres of...

Israel Today’s first ever artist-in-residence, Hanoch Piven, took Tidewater by storm with more than 40 events over his two-week visit, engaging more than 1,500 people from both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Piven held workshops at the United Jewish Federation...

What ingredients made this year’s Super Sunday so successful? Community members of all ages volunteering? More than 215 individual gifts pledged to the 2019 campaign? Social action projects teaching kids Tikkun Olam? The answer, of course, is all of these and more. On...

The annual celebration of Jewish writers, books, and ideas, Simon Family JCC’s Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival, provides an opportunity to engage with talented authors about their latest books. The month-long Festival also offers the latest titles...

Extreme heat and humidity did not keep golfers and volunteers from supporting the Hebrew Academy of Tidewater Konikoff Center of Learning’s 30th Annual Golf Tournament, also known as The Bob Josephberg Classic. With a heat index in the upper 90’s, the golfers toughed...

With so much to celebrate—its sanctuary’s 100th anniversary and the congregation’s upcoming 175th anniversary—Ohef Sholom Temple rededicated the synagogue’s sanctuary on Saturday, Oct. 13. After a processional with clergy, past presidents carrying the temple’s Torahs,...

Dear Readers, Fortunately for those who like to celebrate, scores of opportunities exist to say “Mazel Tov!” While our first thought for those two incredibly expressive words might be for a wedding or B’nai Mitzvah—countless other occasions qualify, too. Take for...

For me, deciding to join UJFT’s Journey Home to Israel 2018 mission was motivated by two factors. One was visiting my twin grand-daughters and their parents who live on Kibbutz Yiftah in northern Israel. Two, was that as chair of UJFT’s Israel and Oveseas Committee, I...

Hannah Mancoll and Sam Zelenka, students at First Colonial’s Legal Studies Academy in Virginia Beach, recently interviewed Virginia’s 2nd District Representative Scott Taylor (R) and challenger Elaine Luria (D). Excerpts from their conversations follow: Representative...

One of the great things about being a journalist is traveling the world on story assignments. But it’s the remarkable people I meet, during my journey abroad, that fuels my passion for my profession.

After spending a decade of his adult life helping poor people in southwest China, Tom Elder came home to watch his father die – with dignity– thanks to excellent caregivers. Through it all, he learned compassion. And the value of hospice.

“All roads lead to Jerusalem…” or so I like to believe, and so I say, especially when I unexpectedly stumble across a friend or acquaintance walking to or from the Kotel on a Friday evening. In June of this year, I was privileged to find myself with 36 friends at the Kotel on a beautiful Shabbat evening, and it really felt like magic was in the air. We sat together, sang together, celebrated together and took turns lighting candles inside a terrarium!

Giving the art of caricature an innovative look while shedding new light on today’s most familiar faces, Israel Today Artist-in-Residence’s Hanoch Piven’s caricatures have appeared in major American magazines and newspapers such as Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone,The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times. His work has also appeared in publications in Spain, France, England, Norway, Italy, and Israel.