Jewish News

Dana Cohen does not seem to like to be the center of attention, though that was the case on Friday, Jan. 9, as it was “Dana Cohen Day” at Indian River High School in Chesapeake. Master teacher Craig Blackman, the Holocaust Commission’s Esther Goldman Education award-winning teacher for whom Cohen has been a longtime guest [...]

The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater will lead a mission to the Jewish community of Argentina in the fall. Beginning in Buenos Aires on Thursday, Oct. 15, the mission will include visits with Jewish community leaders and opportunities to see Federation’s Campaign dollars at work on the ground. The group will experience some of the [...]

Amidst horrific reports of anti-Semitic violence emanating from Europe, and just one day before hostages were killed at a kosher French market, the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater presented a timely program, The Rise of Anti-Semitism: A Resurgence of Evil. More than 150 members of the community braved sub-freezing temperatures to gain an informed perspective [...]

This month’s deadly hostage siege at a kosher supermarket in Paris has French Jews (and some non-Jews) proclaiming “Je suis juif,” or “I am Jewish,” in solidarity with the four people killed in the attack. Who are the Jews of France? Here’s a primer. How many Jews are there in France? About 500,000, the most [...]

(KVELLER/JTA)—I grew up in a public school that had enough Jewish kids that I felt represented. I went to Hebrew school twice a week and had a chavurah, or fellowship, through my Reform synagogue with kids my age. A portion of my family was Orthodox. I was surrounded by Jews. I always felt like there [...]

“Now, when Pharaoh let the people go, God did not guide them by the road towards the Philistines, although that was the shortest; for He said, ‘The people may change their minds when they see war before them, and turn back to Egypt.’ So God made them go round by way of the wilderness…” Exodus [...]

The past few weeks have seen people rise up to protest the killings in France and all that they portend for civilization. There seemingly was no doubt that people understood that what occurred was reprehensible and a frighteningly fundamental attack on freedom and on humanity. There is certainty that as a Jewish people we can [...]

(JTA)—Mario Cuomo, a three-term New York governor, was the rare politician who appealed to the Jewish tent’s opposite poles. A strident liberal with a nuanced understanding of the sense of vulnerability among the deeply religious in a secular society, Cuomo died of heart failure on Thursday, Jan. 1, just hours after his son Andrew was [...]

Bess Myerson, the only Jewish woman to be crowned Miss America, has died. Myerson, who also was a spokeswoman for the Anti-Defamation League and donated $1.1 million to help found the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, died on Dec. 14 at her home in Santa Monica, Calif., The New York Times reported. She [...]

Norfolk —Alan J. Mand, 77, passed away on Friday, Jan. 2, 2014. He was a Norfolk native, Maury High School graduate, lifelong member of Congregation Beth El and its Men’s Club. He was a member of Brith Sholom and Masonic Lodge Norfolk #1. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Annette Mand and [...]