Jewish News

The Serpent Papers Jeff Schnader The Permanent Press, March 2022 ISBN: 978-1-57962-648-8 302 pages, $29.95 I recently finished reading The Serpent Papers, a new novel about the Vietnam era by Jeff Schnader, a local retired physician and EVMS professor turned author. And I can’t stop thinking about it. College life in America during the peak of the [...]

The continued threat to Jewish institutions throughout the nation prompted the formation of Secure Community Network in 2004 as the official homeland security and safety initiative of the organized Jewish community in North America. Dedicated to securing synagogues, and all Jewish institutions—JCCs, camps, and especially those who congregate within—the group offers training on a variety [...]

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Whether he meant to or not, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz gave Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, an opportunity for a breather in the middle of a contentious day of confirmation hearings on Tuesday, March 22. Cruz, who spent most of his 30-minute questioning session trying to corner Jackson on issues [...]

Dear Readers, This might be the year that we all get to dust off most of our Haggadahs, and maybe even polish the silver as we return, hopefully, to some more traditional Seders. While last year’s smaller outdoor Seders were a welcome step forward from the previous year’s more isolated Zoom events, gathering around a [...]

Instead of asking, “Why is tonight different from all other nights?” the first of the traditional four questions asked by the youngest child at the Seder, Jewish News asked local rabbis, “Why is Passover this year different from the last two years?” With the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and plenty of political discord, their [...]

PJ Library in Tidewater, in partnership with Strelitz International Academy and Camp JCC, gathered with the community at the Sandler Family Campus for a Purim celebration on Sunday, March 13. Dressed in colorful costumes ready to participate in Operation Hamantaschen, families received everything they needed to make their own hamantaschen cookies. The kids rolled out [...]

Tidewater BBYO held their first ever in-person Hamantaschen Bake on Sunday, March 6. Hosted by the Arluk family, BBYO teens crafted their hamantaschen from scratch to hot-out-of-the-oven. Both traditional ingredients, such as raspberry and apricot jams, and less traditional choices such as Hershey’s kisses, milk and white chocolate chips, butterscotch morsels, and caramel were utilized [...]

It has been a banner year for United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s NADIV Young Men’s Giving circle. Moving out of the pandemic, the group’s membership has climbed to 37 members—all active and donating into the giving circle. Plus, the men made another fantastic push for the March Madness Bracket Challenge which helps raise money for [...]

Devastated by what is happening in Ukraine, the reality in Hungary is that there is a lot to do. As of March 14, more than 250,000 Ukrainians have made their way to Hungary; most refugees arriving are women, children, and seniors (many elderly are disabled), and most are showing up without extra pairs of clothes [...]

(JTA)—Russian billionaires Petr Aven, Mikhail Fridman, and German Kahn have stepped down from the board of Genesis Philanthropy Group, a major funder of Jewish causes founded by the trio, after they were sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom. The billionaires are among the oligarchs targeted by Western sanctions over their longstanding ties to the [...]