Jewish News

Wednesday, August 3, 6 pm, Simon Family JCC Ten 17-year-old Israeli Scouts and two leaders will visit the Simon Family JCC in early August. Each Friendship Caravan of Scouts, or Tzofim, consists of five males and five females. The Scouts are all accomplished performers, chosen as much for talent as verve and enthusiasm. All members [...]

Leon Family Art Gallery at the Simon Family JCC July 20–August 20 A white billowy hood crowns a woman’s face peeking out of the darkness. Ceremonial robes drape the human form. The composition is swallowed in sorrow. Monochromatic tones transition from deep blacks to reflective whites. Beneath the image’s surface is a narrative the viewer [...]

The Simon Family JCC’s Be a Reader (BEAR) program was honored at the Virginia Beach City Public Schools 2016 Community Celebration in April. BEAR’s success continues to receive recognition and accolades for the impact the program has on the community. But the real reward comes from the volunteers and their dayto- day interactions with students. [...]

At the 63rd Biennial Meeting of Jewish Family Service of Tidewater on June 9, Lawrence Steingold, outgoing president, handed over the reins to Jeff Cooper, who will serve as president for the 2016- 2018 term. Throughout the evening, the focus was on celebration, success and community. Past president, Dr. Marcia Samuels, installed Cooper and the [...]

The Morning They Came For Us (Dispatches From Syria) Janine Di Giovanni New York: Liveright Publishing 206 pages, $25.95 The Morning They Came For Us is an important book with lasting consequence by author Janine Di Giovanni, award-winning (including two Amnesty International Awards) foreign correspondent and Newsweek’s Middle East editor. She expertly captures the near [...]

A Rage For Order—The Middle East in Turmoil: From Tahrir Square to ISIS Robert F. Worth Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016 259 pages, $26 ISBN978-0-374-25294-6 When Robert Kaplan published his collection of articles, Balkan Ghosts, in 1995, it was immediately recognized to be more than a survey, more than a travelogue and more than a [...]

Interfaith coalition urges Senate action on Supreme Court vacancy. Fifteen Jewish groups joined an interfaith coalition in calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. During a conference call Thursday, July 14, 40 national and state religious organizations urged senators to hold a swift hearing and [...]

Like so many of members of our community, I had the honor of hearing Elie Wiesel speak at ODU’s Ted Constant Convocation Center in March 2006. Always the conscience of his generation, Wiesel lamented how little humanity had changed since the Holocaust. Wondering aloud, he said: “There is racism in many parts of the world, [...]

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate who became a leading icon of Holocaust remembrance and a global symbol of conscience, died Saturday, July 2 at 87. His death was the result of natural causes, the World Jewish Congress said in a statement. A philosopher, professor and author of such seminal works of [...]

July 2006 Zena Herod officially became the head of school for Hebrew Academy of Tidewater and the Strelitz Early Childhood Center. Helen Kisser joined administration as new director of general studies and assistant director of SECC. Alene Kaufman continued as director of SECC and became director of Judaic studies for HAT and SECC. Old Dominion [...]