Your stories, Your Impact

TJF Provides Assistance to Ukrainian Refugees

On February 24th, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and refugees began spilling across bordering countries. An estimated 200,000 Jews were living in Ukraine, many of whom were trapped in conflict zones in east Ukraine or fled the fighting. Support for the Jewish community was urgently needed. The global Jewish community rallied its resources and came together, drawing from over a century of crisis response experience to aid those Jews who remained in Ukraine, those trying to evacuate, and the thousands of refugees who have now spread across Europe and other countries. The Tidewater Jewish Foundation provided a $25,000 grant to the United Jewish Federation Ukraine Emergency Fund. Nobody anticipated the scale or length of the fighting. In FY2022, Tidewater Jewish Foundation donor advised fund holders granted $540,000 to Ukraine emergency relief, with over $440,000 going directly to the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Ukraine Emergency Fund. The UJFT Fund was created to help with a variety of issues, such as securing the local community and its institutions, maintaining critical welfare services, launching an emergency hotline, securing five Jewish schools, and training staff to manage crisis needs.

The Ukraine Emergency Fund was established to assist with the challenges of protecting the Jewish community trying to escape the conflict or sheltering in place.

Our donors also recommended grants to the following organizations

• Friends of United

Hatzalah • American Jewish Joint

Distribution Committee • American National

Red Cross • International Fund for Animal Welfare • Federation of Jewish

Communities of the CIS • Agudath Israel of America

Rabbi Moshe Druin gets to work on evaluating nearly 30 Torahs for the Tidewater Jewish Community.

READ MORE Scan the code with your phone to read more about Grants in Action or visit: bit.ly/grants-sofer

TJF hosts Sofer and educational experience for Tidewater

Grants in Action: Meet & Greet with a Sofer highlighted a $24,000 Tidewater Jewish Foundation Community Impact Grant to Temple Emanuel. It gave over 50 community members the opportunity to meet a Sofer, learn what they do, and see them in action. Invited to Tidewater by Temple Emanuel, the Sofer spent a week in Tidewater evaluating and assessing 30 scrolls from various community congregations and organizations. “Temple Emanuel contacted every synagogue, Hillel, nursing home, Chabad, and Chavurah in the area to ask whether they had Torahs that needed, or they wanted, to be inspected,” said Lovitz. “It was determined that there were over 25 Torahs in the Tidewater community that needed to be evaluated.”

“We are incredibly grateful to the Tidewater Jewish Foundation for allowing us to have the community’s Torahs evaluated,” said Jason Lovitz, Grant Writer and Past President of Temple Emanuel. “Bringing in Rabbi Moshe Druin to come and evaluate 30 scrolls over the week was a pretty cool thing.”

Those with ties to the Tidewater Jewish community are eligible to apply for the Simon Family Passport.

Stein Family College Scholarship now offers up to $80,000.

The Tidewater Jewish Foundation announced that starting in 2022, the Stein Family College Scholarship will be offering up to $20,000 a year for four years. This $80,000 scholarship opportunity makes it the largest scholarship in Jewish Tidewater.

The scholarship, which is given to Hampton Roads Jewish first-year college students, was created in 2009 as a tribute to Arlene Stein, who was unable to finish college due to financial difficulties. The Stein family also views this as a chance for recipients to enrich their lives, afford out-of-state tuition, and engage with a larger Jewish community as part of their college experience.

LEARN MORE Scan the code with your phone to learn more about the Stein Family Scholarship or visit: bit.ly/tjf-stein.

READ MORE Scan the code with your phone to read more about Yael’s Young Judaea Year Course Experience or visit: bit.ly/yael-schranz

TJF awards Leia Morrissey the Stein Family Scholarship.

The annual Stein Family College Scholarship of the Tidewater Jewish Foundation was recently awarded to Leia Morrissey, a soon-to-be graduate of Granby High School in Norfolk, Virginia.

Morrissey is the 14th recipient of the fouryear scholarship, which provides up to $20,000 per year to a Jewish student in Tidewater. The scholarship was established in 2009 in memory of Arlene Stein, who did not complete college because of financial hardship. Arlene passed away in 2007 and Jerry Stein, her beloved husband, in 2014. TJF works closely with the Stein family each year to administer the scholarship.

“I am beyond honored to receive the Stein Family Scholarship,” said Morrissey. “I’m going to never not appreciate it. I’ll continue earning it by doing well in college and making everyone back home proud.”

Simon Family Passport: Yael Schranz

It’s been almost a month now and it feels like I just left yesterday. You know the experience was amazing especially when it is so difficult to move on from it.

I went to Israel on a gap year known as Young Judaea Year Course. I lived in Jerusalem taking classes on Judaism, Zionism, Middle Eastern studies, and Leadership. During that time, we also took lots of educational trips to learn about all the aspects of Israeli society. Then, I lived in Tel Aviv where I first learned how to code through a tech track and then interned at Nefesh B’Nefesh. In between these two semesters, we all participated in a program called Sar-El where we volunteered at army bases for two weeks. Throughout the year, I had a variety of unique experiences from Tuesday trips to road trips with the rabbi to Shabbat B’yachad. With the freedom that this program provided me, I took the opportunity to make my own travel plans to visit friends and family all around Israel. I had a variety of shabbos experiences that I hold so close to my heart. I got to participate in Tikvah Overseas Scholars program where I took an additional class and listened to amazing speakers. And I was a fellow of Nitzavim where we learned how to be Jewish leaders on a college campus after of year in Israel. — Yael Schranz