Jewish News

On Sunday, April 26, Beth El Synagogue hosted a Noah’s Ark themed Family Fun Day. Open to the community, more than 40 families with infants to grandparents attended. With decorations courtesy of Leslie Siegel, there was something for all to enjoy. Whether it was jumping in the tiger bounce house, having faces painted and hair [...]

America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder Bret Stephens Sentinel, 2014 269 pages, $27.95 ISBN 978-1-59184-662-8 Bret Stephens, is a Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent and deputy editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal and former editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post. America in Retreat, essentially a jeremiad against Barack [...]

The Victory of Zionism Emmanuel Navon 2014 366 pages, $18 (paper) ISBN 1-502-32794-5 Ari Shavit’s best-selling cri de coeur, My Promised Land, was naturally not a hit with the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and its supporters. Yet despite its rather liberal take on the history and present condition of the state of Israel, [...]

Retelling Genesis by Barry Louis Polisar Illustrations by Roni Lynn Polisar Rainbow Morning Music: Silver Spring, Maryland 32 pages, $7.95 Author, musician, recording artist, songwriter and entertainer Barry Louis Polisar was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. His 14 children’s books and more than 160 songs have already made [...]

Beginning in 2000-2001, the Virginia Beach City Public Schools Partnership Advisory Link, an advisory body comprised of school and community representatives, began annually recognizing Model Partnerships. Through a nomination and panel review process, each school year’s Model Partnerships are selected as examples of best practices of meaningful community involvement in the Virginia Beach school district. [...]

WALTHAM, Mass. (JTA)—When Jeff Wang was applying to U.S. colleges more than two years ago from his home near Shanghai, Brandeis University was a top choice. Like many Chinese students now at Brandeis, he had discovered the university on Chinese Internet forums that touted the school’s academic rankings and its high faculty-to-student ratio. Wang noted [...]

If you were not one of the 500–600 people at Congregation Beth El for the annual Yom Hashoah program, sponsored by the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, I wish I could say with confidence, “Don’t worry—there’s always next year.” But I cannot. The reality is that each year the survivor population [...]

NEW YORK (JTA)—The Pew Research Center’s newly released 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study offers a trove of data on American Jews based on interviews with 35,071 American adults, 847 of whom identified their faith as Jewish. Here are some of the more interesting findings about the Jews. We’re highly educated! There are more American Jews [...]

On Friday, March 27, Vi rg i n i a State Bar (VSB) President Kevin Martingayle sent an email to members of the bar, which caused a fair amount of upset in local Jewish communities. Martingayle’s message notified VSB members that their upcoming Midyear Legal Seminar, which was scheduled to take place in Jerusalem, was [...]

Under the continued leadership of Marcia Hofheimer and Joyce Strelitz, the Tom Hofheimer Fund, while continuing its Medical Mission abroad and particularly to Israel, cast about for other areas needing its attention. The new millennium kicked off with a major grant to Jewish Family Service of Tidewater (JFS) to develop a Children’s Grief, Loss and [...]