What’s Happening

Leon Family Gallery | Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus November and December While continuing to serve as Israel’s pre-eminent research library, The National Library of Israel embarked on an ambitious journey to expand access to its treasures. NLI holds the largest...

Rick Recht is one of the top touring musicians in Jewish music—evolutionizing and elevating the genre of Jewish rock music as a powerful and effective tool for developing Jewish pride and identity in youth and adults across the United States. He’ll be in Tidewater...

Begins on Sunday, November 11, 7 pm Lives are comprised of decisions—large and small. Some decisions are of seemingly no consequence, but others have people stumped while trying to discern between right and wrong. Moral and ethical dilemmas can be found at every...

Faces of Survival, an intimate, powerful series of portraits honoring and celebrating the 24 current living Holocaust survivors in Tidewater, made its debut in April at Yom Hashoah at Congregation Beth El. The series exhibited at the Virginia Holocaust Museum in...

Veterans’ Day Sunday, November 11, 4 pm | Norfolk Academy The Elbert Watson Dance Company presents Angels Watching Over Me: A Tribute to Veterans Through Dance. This performance is free and open to the public. For information, call 757-461-6236.

Monday, November 12, 9:30 am | Sandler Family Campus In addition to honoring veterans who have served in America’s armed forces, Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s 9th Annual Veterans Day service and celebration honors those who continue to do so with dedication and...

With Physical Therapy Month taking place this month, Jewish Family Service plans to recognize the “incredible work of its amazing physical therapists,” says Jan Ganderson, JFS director of nursing. “Hardly a day goes by that we don’t receive a call in our office...

Thursday, October 25, 7 pm Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus The 4th Annual Great Big Challah Bake will be one of thousands of similar events taking place around the world—and one part of The Shabbat Project —bringing Jews from all walks of life and across the...

Tuesday, November 13, 7–8 pm Neville Frankel, author of On The Sickle’s Edge will participate in an interactive discussion by Skype with Ohef Sholom Temple’s Sisterhood Book Club. On The Sickle’s Edge was featured at the Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book...

Leon Family Gallery Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus November and December While continuing to serve as Israel’s pre-eminent research library, The National Library of Israel recently embarked upon an ambitious journey of renewal to open access to its treasures and...

A global, grassroots movement that brings Jews from across the world together around the shared heritage of Shabbat, the Shabbat Project initiative was introduced in South Africa in 2013. In the days that followed, the Jewish world heard, and was inspired by, how the majority of the community kept Shabbat, and how Jews were brought together in unprecedented ways.

Thursday, Dec. 25, 7 am–3 pm Each year on Christmas, Beth Sholom Village’s employees are able to spend the day with their families because of Switch Day. The day is always a “win-win.” Volunteers have a good time, employees get to celebrate Christmas at home and the...

Saturday, Jan. 17, 7:30 pm, Sandler Center for the Performing Arts Above and Beyond is about bravery and courage of the “Top Guns” in the Israeli Air Force. When Producer Nancy Spielberg came across an obituary of the “Father” of this air force, she was startled to...

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 7:30 pm The second expert in the 2014-15 Israel Today series, Mark Dubowitz will speak about a nuclear Iran at the Sandler Family Campus next month. The event is hosted by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Community Relations Council and...

The Simon Family JCC, which has been on the Sandler Family Campus for 10 years, is extending a free 30-day trial membership to area synagogue members so that non-members may try the many new and exciting fitness classes at the JCC. “The JCC is a community center for...

April 18–19, 2015, Richmond All ‘teens’ of the 1970s who participated in Virginia Council B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO), are invited to attend a reunion at the Weinstein JCC in Richmond. Teens of the 70s are BBYO members between the years of 1968 and 1984....

Thursdays by Jenny Lefcoe With the 2015–2016 school year kicking off, it’s easy to become overwhelmed, exhausted and want to seek an outlet from the endless pressures of daily life. To help Jewish girls with that need for an outlet, Tidewater has a new and exciting...

Thursday, Nov. 20, 7 pm, Regent University Theater by Robin Mancoll With fresh memories of this past summer’s Operation Protective Edge and the young adults who were casualties of war while defending the State of Israel, the IDF soldiers are back in the spotlight. The...

Sunday, Nov. 16, 3:30 pm, Congregation Beth Ahabah, Richmond Jewish choral groups from across the central and southern regions of Virginia will perform as a single choir, in the first-ever Virginia Jewish Choral Celebration at Richmond’s Beth Ahabah. The event is free...

Monday, Nov. 3, 7 pm by Leslie Shroyer Named by Talk Magazine as one of the 50 best speakers in the United States, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is the keynote speaker at this year’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe* Family Jewish Book Festival. Joseph Telushkin is the bestselling...

Begins Monday, Nov. 3, 7:15 pm, B’nai Israel Norfolk’s B’nai Israel Congregation is offering a free Hebrew Reading Crash Course to all members of the Tidewater Jewish community. The course is designed to teach those with no basic knowledge of Hebrew how to read the...

Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 pm, United Jewish Community of the Virginia Peninsula Author of The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War, Yochi Dreazen will speak about his new book. One of the most respected military journalists in the country, Dreazen is the...

Friday, Oct. 24, 5:30–8 pm Experience a real Shabbat dinner with friends and families and do an activity related to the week’s Parsha, Noah. Also see what the sky looks like that night, and talk about the sky in Noah’s time. Sponsored by the Simon Family JCC Children...

Sunday, Oct. 12, 2 pm A 1999 TV movie based on the novel by Jane Yolen, The Devil’s Arithmetic is the first film of The Jewish Museum and Cultural Center’s season. The story of a Jewish girl who, during a Seder, is transported in time to 1942 Poland where she is sent...

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 5–8:30 pm Jewish Family Service of Tidewater is hosting a ‘one-stop shopping event’ featuring numerous direct sales and community vendors. The event will take place at TowneHall (attached to TowneBank), 137 Mount Pleasant Road in Chesapeake. Free...

Sunday, Oct. 19, 2:30 pm Virginia Opera returns to the Simon Family JCC with a performance for young opera enthusiasts with scenes from The Empress and the Nightingale. This Hans Christian Andersen classic is a children’s story of a small bird sharing her gift of...

The Mothers Circle program begins Tuesday, Oct. 21, 9 am In the United States, at least half of all Jewish marriages are interfaith marriages. In many such unions, women of different faiths want to understand more about Judaism and raising Jewish children, but may not...