Jewish News - 3.14.22 Issue

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Southeastern Virginia | Vol. 60 No. 11 | 11 Adar II 5782 | March 14, 2022

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY AND UKRAINE

26 Unorthodox in Tidewater Thursday, April 7

27 Charlie Nusbaum VCIC Humanitarian Award Winner Thursday, March 24

• President Zelensky appeals to world-wide Jewish community • Tidewater establishes Ukraine Emergency Fund • Israel sends medical teams; welcomes refugees

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27 Purim in Tidewater

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31 Virginia Festival of Jewish Film wraps

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UPFRONT

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Published 20 times a year by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.

Klal Yisrael—

We are one people, responsible for one another.

Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus of the Tidewater Jewish Community 5000 Corporate Woods Drive, Suite 200 Virginia Beach, Virginia 23462-4370 voice 757-965-6100 • fax 757-965-6102 email news@ujft.org QR code generated on http://qrcode.littleidiot.be

Community Members,

T

hrough our partner agencies JDC, The Jewish Agency for Israel, and World ORT, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater is on the ground in Ukraine, home to more than 200,000 Jews, every day of the year, helping the most vulnerable and supporting programming to help younger generations reimagine Jewish life where it was all but destroyed.

Ukraine is now in crisis, fighting an unprovoked war. The American-Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is in Ukraine delivering urgent, lifesaving care to nearly 40,000 Jewish elderly and 2,500 impoverished Jewish children it supports in 1,000 locations throughout the country. The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) is racing to process Jewish refugees in six countries. World ORT is ensuring the safety and security of more than 8,000 individuals at five ORT schools in Ukraine. And so much more.

Again, Tidewater is quickly responding to urgent needs. UJFT has allocated Israel and Overseas funds to Ukraine and many individuals have made donations, with more expressing an interest to contribute. As a result, we opened the Tidewater Ukraine Emergency Fund, with 100% of donations made distributed to our overseas partners: JDC, JAFI, ORT and others. Tidewater Jewish Foundation is generously providing a $25,000 match

CONTENTS

opportunity for donations to this fund.

As the crisis in Ukraine escalates, thousands have come under fire. Thousands more have fled the fighting. UJFT, along with other Federations plan to allocate millions of dollars to our partner agencies in Ukraine. Immediate and short-term needs already total about $20 million.

The Ukraine Emergency Fund focuses on: • Helping people make Aliyah to Israel • Securing the local community and its institutions • Maintaining critical welfare services • A ssisting internally displaced people in multiple locations • Launching an emergency hotline • S ecuring temporary housing for people in transit • P urchasing satellite phones to maintain communications • Securing five Jewish schools and training staff to manage crisis needs.

Help us deliver hope and help now when it is so desperately needed.

United Jewish Federation of Tidewater Laura G. Gross, President Alvin Wall, Treasurer Mona Flax, Secretary Betty Ann Levin, Executive Vice-President jewishVA.org The appearance of advertising in the Jewish News does not constitute a kashrut, political, product or service endorsement.

The articles and letters appearing herein are not necessarily the opinion of this newspaper. ©2022 Jewish News. All rights reserved.

community and pray for a swift end to hostilities and a rapid restoration of peace in Ukraine.

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We are proud of our Tidewater Jewish

B’Tayavon: Corned beef and cabbage . . . . . .

Knitting to remember the Holocaust. . . . . . .

Congregation Beth El is open and active. . . .

Storytelling connects generations. . . . . . . . . .

Chabad of Tidewater’s Havdallah a huge hit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

What’s Happening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Purim in Tidewater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jewish bakers make hamantaschen to help Ukraine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Virginia Festival of Jewish film is a wrap. . . .

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CANDLE LIGHTING

QUOTABLE

Cover: JDC volunteers help at a refugee camp in Moldova. Photo: Ramin Mazur

Up Front. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Briefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Israel treats first wounded in Ukraine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 TJF authorizes emergency grant to Ukraine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 18 things to know about President Zelensky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 War in Ukraine ends Jewish post-war era. . . . 8 Zelensky makes appeal to US Jewish leaders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Zelensky thanks Israel for support. . . . . . . . . 12 Special Section: 2022 Summer Camp . . . . . . 13

Terri Denison, Editor Germaine Clair, Art Director Sandy Goldberg, Account Executive Ronnie Jacobs Cohen, Account Executive Marilyn Cerase, Subscription Manager Reba Karp, Editor Emeritus

Friday, March 18/15 Adar II Light candles at 6:57 pm

“All of this happened during Nazi times when the German army rolled through Europe and everyone gave the Jewish people away.”

Friday, March 25/22 Adar II Light candles at 7:03 pm Friday, April 1/29 Adar II Light candles at 7:09 pm Friday, April 8/7 Nissan Light candles at 7:16 pm Friday, April 15/14 Nissan Light candles at 7:22 pm

—page 9

Friday, April 22/21 Nissan Light candles at 7:28 pm

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BRIEFS ARIZONA REPUBLICAN REBUKES COLLEAGUE’S ANTISEMITIC COMMENTS An Arizona state senator wanted to make it clear that she reviled the antisemitism of one of her colleagues, so she shared an image of the cast of the Israeli family drama, Shtisel.

Kelly Townsend, a Republican, no longer wants the endorsement of her colleague, Wendy Rogers, after Rogers drew national attention for a slew of antisemitic and white nationalist statements.

“The silver lining in the most recent unpleasantry at the AZ Senate is that it is flushing out the true antisemites,” Rogers said on Twitter. “I am surprised, not surprised, by the people on our side who can’t bring themselves to condemn such hate speech. #Israel #Chosen #PrayForThePeaceOfJerusalem” The illustration she chose was a cast photo of Shtisel, the drama about a dysfunctional haredi Orthodox family in Jerusalem.

Although it would certainly be accurate to state that Jews love Shtisel, it wasn’t clear why Townsend, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives, chose the image to illustrate that she stands with the Jewish people.

Townsend soon took down the tweet, and replaced it with another, with the same text, this time illustrated by the Israeli flag.

The Arizona Mirror noted that Townsend and Rogers once were close, but Townsend was determined to make clear that is no longer the case.

“I emphatically reject @ WendyRogersAZ endorsement of my campaign for Congress,” she said. “I do not wish to accept financial donations that she solicited & will respectfully return them.” (JTA) RED SOX RELEASE MINOR LEAGUER AFTER SOCIAL MEDIA ATTACKS ON JEWISH EXECUTIVE The Boston Red Sox released a minor league player following an antisemitic and homophobic social media outburst in which he specifically targeted the organization’s chief baseball officer, Chaim Bloom, who is Jewish.

Brett Netzer called Bloom a “fraud,” “an embarrassment to any torah-following jew” and attacked him for his support of Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. Netzer also questioned Bloom’s Jewish identity.

In another bizarre tweet, Netzer responded to a critic by saying, in part, “I am a racist.” Some of his posts targeted Black people, and others attacked transgender people. Netzer’s Twitter account no longer exists.

The news of Netzer’s release was first reported by Chad Jennings, who covers the Red Sox for The Athletic. Netzer responded to Jennings’ tweet by taking issue with the characterization of his comments as antisemitic.

Bloom, who joined the Red Sox front office in 2019, is a Shabbat-observant Jewish day school graduate. When Bloom ran baseball operations for the Tampa Bay Rays, Tablet reported that his family lived walking-distance to the ballpark so Bloom could avoid driving on Shabbat. (JTA)

YESHIVA U BASKETBALL TEAM ELIMINATED FROM NCAA TOURNAMENT AFTER IMPRESSIVE SEASON After a promising season marked by a record-breaking winning streak, the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team was eliminated from the NCAA Division III tournament.

The N0. 19 ranked Maccabees (25–4) lost 63–59 to No. 10 Johns Hopkins (23–3) on Friday, March 4, failing to complete a comeback in the game’s final minutes.

“This team changed the world,” Yeshiva University head coach Elliot Steinmetz said after the loss. “I am very proud of them.”

Though the Maccabees’ March Madness hopes were dashed, the team put together an impressive season that garnered national attention. Y.U. won its second consecutive Skyline Conference Championship, earned a No. 1 national DIII ranking and enjoyed a 50-game winning streak that extended back to 2019.

Illinois Wesleyan University snapped the streak—at the time, the longest active winning streak in American college

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basketball—Dec. 30.

The team’s successful run galvanized the Washington Heights campus—and Jewish sports fans around the country—as many students and fans grew accustomed to winning.

“Within these two or three blocks of the Heights, I think it’s very special,” Elazar Abrahams, Y.U.’s student council president, told The New York Jewish Week. “Jews all over the country feel represented.”

Want more Jewish sports news?

Subscribe to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Jewish Sport Report newsletter. (JTA)

FOLLOWING OUTCRY, DUKE UNIVERSITY STUDENT GOVERNMENT RECOGNIZES CAMPUS ZIONIST GROUP Duke University’s student government granted recognition to a Zionist student group, reversing an earlier decision that had provoked the ire of some national Jewish organizations and a legal threat to the university administration.

In 2021, Duke’s student body president had vetoed a request for recognition by the Duke chapter of Students Supporting Israel over concerns that an Instagram comment of the group’s, which had implored a student to “please allow us to educate you,” had been “potentially hostile or harmful.”

That decision didn’t sit well with outside advocacy groups like the Brandeis Center for Human Rights, the Israel on Campus Coalition and the Zionist Organization of America. All issued statements condemning the university and prompted Duke’s Offices of Institutional Equity and Conduct and Community Standards to investigate whether the SSI veto had been discriminatory. The pro-Israel watchdog group Canary Mission accused the student body president of “antisemitic hypocrisy.”

In December, the Brandeis Center attempted to legally pressure Duke administration to override the student government’s decision.

But in the end, the students sorted it out themselves. On Feb. 23, according to available meeting minutes, the student government voted to approve

a re-submitted proposal from SSI to become an officially recognized student organization within the school’s Student Organization Finance Committee.

The vote to approve the group was unanimous, with some students abstaining.

Duke SSI’s submission for recognition described the group’s mission as “a clear and confident pro-Israel voice on college campuses, and to support students in grassroots pro-Israel advocacy.”

The Brandeis Center praised the decision, while claiming the SSI group’s initial recognition was revoked “all because they support Israel.” (JTA)

ISTANBUL AIRPORT OPENS A KOSHER MEAL VENDING MACHINE The Istanbul Airport is one of the busiest in Europe, serving nearly 40 million people in 2021. Many of its observant Jewish travelers often get stuck in layovers there without kosher food options.

Now they have a flashy new go-to: a kosher vending machine, in addition to hot kosher meals sold in some of the airport’s lounges.

Since last month, the Kosher Food Point machine has offered sandwiches in the airport’s main mezzanine. All of the airport’s new kosher food is provided by the Istanbul-based caterer La Casa—which means “the home” in Ladino—whose proceeds support poor Jewish families in Turkey. The food is certified as kosher by both Denet Gida, an arm of the Turkish rabbinate, and an international certifier, OK Kosher.

“There’s more flights to Tel Aviv than to London,” Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, who helped organize the arrangement, says.

“It’s definitely a very important hub where hundreds of thousands of kosher eating Jews pass through, and sometimes they stop over, sometimes they get stuck.”

Though only 15,000 Jews live in Turkey amid a total population of 80 million, the country is a significant producer of kosher products. Overall, Turkey is the world’s seventh-largest food producer, and more than three hundred factories around the country have kosher certification and export their products to Israel, America, and Europe. (JTA)

UKRAINE

First wounded from Ukraine arrive in Israel for medical treatment.

Transport facilitated by Magen David Adom and New York–based Hatzolah Air

Lod, Israel (March 7, 2022)—When an apartment building in Kyiv was hit by a missile on Saturday, Feb. 26, Irina Karaush, 44, and her 19-year-old son, Mark, were injured. They received initial treatment from a local hospital, but suffered complex injuries to their limbs.

When Nachman Dickstein, a volunteer

Irina Karaush arrives in Israel.

with Magen David Adom (MDA) living in Kyiv, learned about their complicated injuries, he contacted his colleagues in Israel to help bring them there for continued medical care.

Magen David Adom, Israel’s national paramedic and Red Cross service, contacted Hatzolah Air, a New York–based volunteer rescue organization that flies people in need to specific medical treatment. Hatzolah Air’s representative in Israel, MDA paramedic Aharon Adler, arranged for a private plane that departed from New York to the Romanian-Moldova border and from there to Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel.

The jet was loaded with seven tons of medical supplies, food, and other humanitarian goods for Ukrainian refugees on the Moldova- Uk r a i ne border.

The plane arrived in Israel Monday, March 7, with the entire

Mark Karaush in MDA ambulance.

family, including Irina’s husband, Max, 44, and other son, Georgi, 10. Two awaiting MDA Mobile Intensive Care Units evacuated Irina and Mark to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

“As soon as we were informed of the medical condition of the Karaush family, who were hit by a direct missile in their home, we contacted Eli Rowe, president and founder of the Hatzolah Air, a longtime partner,” says Eli Bin, MDA’s

director-general.

“As a Red Cross affiliate, we’re working to help refugees and the wounded as much as possible in various ways, and this is how we will continue to act,” says Bin. One of those ways includes a special hotline center to assist Ukrainian refugees who arrive in Israel. Nearly 3,000 have already arrived—most of them not Jewish.

Tidewater Jewish Foundation gives to Ukraine and inspires individual donors Naomi Limor Sedek

T

idewater Jewish Foundation’s annual grant to United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s campaign has supported the Jewish community in Ukraine for decades. Today, however, the need is different and immediate.

One purpose of grants from Tidewater Jewish Foundation’s Unrestricted Endowment Fund is to respond to local, national, and international emergency needs—operating on the principle that Klal Yisrael—we

are one people, responsible for one another.

With this in mind, on March 1, TJF’s executive committee authorized an emergency grant of $25,000 to be used as leverage to secure additional resources from Tidewater’s Jewish community through UJFT’s Ukraine Emergency Fund. This matching grant opportunity demonstrates TJF’s commitment to serving the most vulnerable Jews in Ukraine, attending to the needs of Jewish refugees, and encouraging others in the community to step up.

In addition to the Emergency Grant from the

Foundation, community members with Donor Advised Funds at TJF have distributed an additional $73,700 to serve where needed in Ukraine: $5,000 direct to JDC; $53,400 to UJFT’s Ukraine Emergency Fund; and $15,300 to other relief organizations.

If others in the community want to open a Donor Advised Fund or activate resources in their funds for Ukraine Emergency grants, contact Naomi Limor Sedek, president and CEO of the Tidewater Jewish Foundation, at 757-965-6109 or nsedek@ujft.org.

jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 5

Forever Helping Others

Architect Bernard Spigel died in 1968, leaving a legacy of homes, schools, and other buildings he designed.

Today, Spigel Scholars are designing buildings of their own.

A scholarship that Bernard’s daughter, LucySpigel Herman, created at the community foundation to honor him helps future architects pay for their education.

Find out how you can leave your mark.

Visit LeaveABequest.org

UKRAINE 18 things to know about Volodymyr Zelensky, showman, Paddington voice and Jewish defender of Ukrainian democracy Philissa Cramer

(JTA)—The world has had a crash course on Volodymyr Zelensky in recent weeks, as the Ukrainian president has galvanized his country against an unprovoked attack by neighboring Russia.

The broad strokes of Zelensky’s career have long been known to those who pay attention to Ukrainian politics—or to their spillover effects in American government.

He’s young, funny, Jewish, and committed to a strong democratic Ukraine, even at the risk of death. “I need ammunition, not a ride,” he reportedly told American authorities after they offered to evacuate him from Ukraine.

But as someone who has long been in the public eye, and not always in politics, Zelensky has left more to know than that. We scoured interviews in multiple languages, scrolled through his social media posts and compiled some amazing YouTube clips to offer a more nuanced portrait.

Here are 18 things to know about the man who has captured the world’s attention.

1. He had an “ordinary Soviet Jewish upbringing.” Zelensky told the Times of Israel in early 2020, on the eve of visiting Israel to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, that his family was typical of Soviet Jews in the 1980s when he was growing up.

That meant, he said, that they were not religious, because “religion didn’t exist in the Soviet state as such.” Indeed, Jewish observance was illegal and Jews were routinely surveiled, although many Jews did preserve some elements of their Jewish identity as acts of resistance. If that was the case in Zelensky’s family, he hasn’t said so. “I never speak about religion and I never speak about God because I have my own personal opinion about it,” he said in the interview. “Of course, I believe in God. But I speak with him only in those moments which are personal for me.”

2. He grew up in what was once known

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as the “Pale of Settlement.” Like much of Ukraine, Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih is located in the only region of the Russian Empire where Jews were permitted to live. The area, known as the Pale of Settlement, was formed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries after the Russian government barred Jews from living elsewhere under its supervision. Pogroms, or organized attacks against Jewish communities, originated in the Pale of Settlement and terrorized the Jews living there for generations.

3. As with most Ukrainian Jews, the Holocaust is part of his story. Zelensky has said that his great-grandfather and three of his grandfather’s brothers died as a result of the Nazi invasion of Ukrainian territory. His grandfather and his grandfather’s brothers took up arms against the Nazis in the Red Army; his grandfather was the only one to survive. He did not specify whether they died in combat or in the extended massacre of more than 1 million Ukrainian Jews that the Nazis carried out, often with local collaboration. His grandmother, he has said, survived because she left Kryvyi Rih for Kazakhstan; almost all of the Jews who remained were murdered. A Holocaust memorial not far from his parents’ home in Kryvyi Rih was defaced in January 2020.

4. He says being Jewish is a small part of his identity. Zelensky rarely discusses his Jewish identity publicly, and by all accounts it was not a prominent part of his campaign, even by his detractors. Asked about his Jewishness by the French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy in early 2019, Zelensky declined to explore it at length, Levy wrote when the interview appeared in the French newspaper Le Point. “The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults,” he told Levy.

5. He has credited his Jewish parents with giving him his moral compass. Zelensky’s father, Oleksander, is a mathematician

Volodymyr Zelensky, August 26, 2019

who heads a university computer science department; his mother Rimma was an engineer for many years. He said in a 2018 interview, shortly before officially running for president, that because of them, he is unable to accept lies. “I always react painfully to lies,” he said. “This is the main feature that my parents gave me.”

6. He has many personal ties to Israel.

Zelensky has said he has relatives who moved to Israel in the 1990s, during the wave of Jewish emigration from the newly dissolved Soviet Union. He has also conducted business there as an actor and comedian, and performed in venues throughout the country. As Ukrainian president, he has visited just once, for the Holocaust commemoration shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began. “I know Israel,” he said in the Times of Israel interview. “I know people there.”

7. Married for nearly two decades, he’s the father of two children. Zelensky dated his wife Olena, a school acquaintance 11 days his junior, for eight years before they married in September 2003. Their daughter Oleksandra was born the following year, and they had a son, Kyrylo, in 2013.

Olena has been an advocate for women and children since Zelensky took office,

Local Relationships Matter

UKRAINE and last month she posted on Instagram about the bravery of Ukrainian women who are defending their country against the Russians. Zelensky has said that his family remains in Ukraine but that he will not disclose their location.

8. He got a scholarship to study in Israel but didn’t go. In a 2018 interview with a friend from the entertainment industry, he described scoring so high on an international English exam that he had an opportunity after high school to study in Israel. Most of his classmates took advantage of the option—he named one woman specifically who moved to Israel—but he did not, saying that his father prohibited him from moving. He studied law in Ukraine instead.

9. He won the Ukrainian equivalent of Dancing with the Stars in 2006. A highlights reel of a 28-year-old Zelensky twisting and dipping in a series of outlandish outfits, including a pink leisure suit, recently went viral.

10. His most prominent acting role foreshadowed his presidency. On the political satire TV show Servant of the People, Zelensky played a history teacher so outraged by government corruption that he runs for president—and stuns the country and himself by winning.

Produced by Zelensky’s company, the show aired on Ukrainian television from 2015 to 2019, its final episode launching just weeks before Zelensky was himself elected president.

11. He voiced Paddington in the Ukrainiandubbed versions of the Paddington movies.

A clip about the movies’ dubbing shows the soon-to-be president giving his voice to a delightful cuddly CGI bear. At one point, Zelensky makes the sounds generated when Paddington sticks electric toothbrushes up his nose. The Paddington books were inspired by Jewish children who took refuge in England during World War II. 12. He has…unconventional piano skills.

One piece of his comedy team’s shtick was to pound the keys with their pants at their

ankles and their hands in the air—leaving little room for guessing how the music was getting made. One of their standbys: the Jewish classic Hava Nagila.

13. He likes dogs, working out and shawarma. Zelensky’s pre-presidency Instagram account reflects his passions from before he was responsible for representing Ukraine on the world stage. He frequently posted workout selfies, which continued at a less frequent pace after he became president. He also posted pictures of his dogs Peter and Nora. And shortly after taking office, he posted a picture of himself eating a shawarma sandwich, writing, “When you have a busy schedule, shawarma can be the solution.…For those in power, I recommend it!”

14. He went shirtless for his COVID vaccination. Most world leaders posted pictures of themselves with rolled-up sleeves getting their inoculations against COVID-19 in 2021. Zelensky went the distance, removing his shirt entirely, in a move that drew international side-eye.

15. The conversation about casting his inevitable biopic has already started. It’s unclear how the Volodymyr Zelensky movie will end, but his admirers have already started suggesting stars to play him. One suggestion that appears to have gained steam is Jeremy Renner, who has acted in war films and bears a resemblance to Zelensky. But Renner is not Jewish, leading some to suggest that he would not be an appropriate choice. For his part, Zelensky was dismissive of the adulation in a CNN interview from his bunker, saying, “It’s very serious, it’s not a movie…I’m not iconic, I think Ukraine is iconic.”

16. He reportedly changed the global response to Russia’s aggression in five minutes. Some world leaders were reportedly hesitant to impose steep sanctions on Russia after the first day of the country’s war on Ukraine. But after meeting with Zelensky by videoconference and hearing him deliver a five-minute, emotional appeal for aid, they changed course. “It was extremely, extremely emotional,” a

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European official briefed on the call told The Washington Post. “He was essentially saying, ‘Look, we are here dying for European ideals.’”

17. He doesn’t like to lose. In the 2018 interview with his entertainment industry friend, Zelensky characterized himself as someone who commits to a fight for the long haul—a resonant idea as his country nears the end of its first week at war with Russia. “I’m such a guy that if I get involved in a battle, I usually don’t get out of it. I can lose, but go out in the middle

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of it…no,” he said. “The white flag is not our flag!”

18. People who know him say he is who he seems right now. “I’ve always thought he is a person who has a profound sense of right and wrong,” a senior adviser to Zelensky told the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity in recent days.

“He will never acquiesce when he thinks something is wrong.” The newspaper asked the adviser whether he believed Zelensky was prepared to die. “The adviser answered without hesitation: ‘Yes.’”

jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 7

UKRAINE OPINION

The Jewish post-rescue era ended with the war in Ukraine Andrew Silow-Carroll

(JTA)—For the past 20 years or so I could write confidently that the Jewish community was in a “post-rescue” era. Following the exodus of Soviet Jews, and the airlifts of Ethiopian Jews, Jewish organizations had to adjust to a reality—perhaps the first in Jewish history—of a world in which there were no captive Jewish communities. HIAS, founded to resettle Jewish refugees, pivoted to help other displaced communities leave their beleaguered homelands and settle elsewhere.

As a result, much of the communal energy—fundraising, activism, political lobbying—was directed to other issues, including defense of Israel, anti-antisemitism, “tikkun olam” (that is, support for universal causes) and, crucially, “continuity,” the catch-all phrase describing efforts to slow the pace of assimilation and waning Jewish literacy.

One of the shocks of Russia’s war on Ukraine, on top of the kind of aggression we haven’t seen in Europe since the end of World War II, is the realization that once again Jews are in harm’s way or on the run. I’m not saying that this is a crisis specific to Jews, who are a fraction of the 1,000,000 Ukrainian refugees flooding into neighboring countries. For all the ugly echoes of Putin’s war, this isn’t a replay of World War II. But this crisis will be remembered for the way it has put Jewish organizations— including Jewish media—back on rescue footing, calling on muscle memory that hasn’t been flexed in decades. JTA’s Ron Kampeas reports on how HIAS, the Jewish federations movement, and others “pivoted within a day of the invasion to assist Jews and others in Ukraine.” Jacob Judah reports from Moldova about the Jews finding refuge in Chisinau’s synagogues and community centers. Karyn Gershon, head of Project Kesher, described in a JTA essay how a feminist organization that empowers Jewish women in Ukraine is now organizing a sort of Jewish Home Guard, with its volunteers collecting medical

supplies, food, diapers, and cash.

I thought about this shift when I spoke last week with principals from RSJ Moishe House, the Russian-speaking division of one of those “continuity” initiatives launched in the past 20 years.

Moishe Houses offer subsidized rent in apartments for young Jews; in return, residents agree to hold Jewish programming for their peers. There are 30 Russianspeaking Moishe Houses around the world, including four in Ukraine.

I spoke via Zoom with Yana Tolmacheva, senior director of RSJ programming, who is in New York, and Yulia Bezrukova, an RSJ Jewish educator usually based in Kyiv, but currently in Prague (we’ll get to that). I thought I might learn about Jewish life in Ukraine; I did, but I also learned how an organization set up to help young people create a Jewish community found itself, in the space of a week, in a very different business.

Three or four Jewish young people live in each of Ukraine’s Moishe Houses, in Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro, and Kharkiv. The residents represent the youngest generation of adult Jews to have emerged in a post-Soviet era. As Yana explains, they include people who were raised Jewish and were “active from the start,” some who might have one Jewish grandparent or some with two Jewish parents who seldom talked about being Jewish.

“They’re not so different from Moishe House residents even in the States,” says Tomachera. “From home they feel the sense of identity and pride, but haven’t always grown up with observance or the literacy of it.”

Bezrukova puts it another way: “It’s cool to be Jewish finally, which was not the case for many years,” she says. “And when I grew up, it was not the case at all.”

That was the experience of Michael, 30, who recently became a community manager overseeing Moishe Houses in Ukraine and other countries in RSJ Moishe House’s orbit (and who asked that his last name not be used). “I first learned about my Jewish roots while studying at school when my

8 | JEWISH NEWS | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

mom decided to change our last name to a totally Russian one,” he says. “But all the parents and kids in the class knew that I was Jewish and bullied me almost every day until ninth grade.”

When he got to university, he says, “I was super proud of my Jewishness and wanted to showcase it and wanted everybody to know that I was Jewish.

After 2010, it felt cool to be Jewish, people were [drawing] up docs to certify their Jewish roots and move to Israel. People in Ukraine are fond of Jews and consider them smart and want to hang out with them.”

In 2012, he went on a Birthright trip with Hillel Kyiv and, he says, “my Jewish life started.” Nine years later, after living abroad, he went to work for Moishe House.

The typical Moishe House activity might be a night of Jewish learning, a singalong or a Shabbat meal, with an assist from Bezrukova and other Moishe House staff. But in the past two months, with the Russian buildup on Ukraine’s borders, “everything just flipped.”

Now the organization has a new mission, which Tolmacheva compares to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: “Do you have shelter? Are you safe? Do you have supplies? And those that have the energy and the ability and the capacity, [can they] do more to be active and to volunteer for others?”

Moishe House is committed to covering the full rent of the apartments whether the residents are living there or not. They’re providing emergency stipends for staff, alumni, and residents so they can purchase food and supplies.

They are helping to cover relocation costs.

All are functions from a different era, when literal survival—not “Jewish identity-building”—was number one on the Jewish communal hierarchy of needs.

(When we spoke, Tolmacheva said “everyone is safe and accounted for.”

Kyiv’s Moishe House even held a havdalah hangout for anyone who needed a break from the tension.)

Bezrukova herself experienced the kind of displacement that was unthinkable just two weeks ago but is already becoming a media trope. When Putin started massing troops on Ukraine’s borders, Bezrukova thought it wise to leave Kyiv for her hometown of Uzhhorod in Ukraine’s far west. She thought at most it might be a “vacation” with her parents and friends. Even after Putin declared two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine “independent,” Bezrukova and others were hoping there’d be a diplomatic solution.

Such hopes died on Feb. 24, with Russia’s invasion, and Yulia felt it was time to leave. She ended up crossing the border into Hungary on foot (to avoid the traffic jams at the vehicle crossing) and eventually making her way to Prague.

Bezrukova talks about the experience, reminiscent of so many Jewish journeys from the not-so-distant past, with lessons drawn from that past. “I left because I remember my own ancestors didn’t have the choice of leaving. And others are staying because their relatives didn’t have the choice of leaving. And the beautiful thing is—if I can say beautiful in such a situation—is that both decisions are absolutely correct.”

I asked Tolmacheva if anything about Moishe House’s usual work prepared her for this moment. Her answer connected the dots of so much of Jewish experience, which perpetually swivels between safety and insecurity, renewal and rescue.

“We’re in the business of community-building,” she says. “Even though that’s not our direct mission, right? We’re not a humanitarian aid organization. But our model is what allowed us to act like this. We have the networks, we have the connection, we have the communication channels. The operational systems in place, the relationships are in place. And it was all hands on deck.”

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

UKRAINE AUTO ACCIDENTS | SERIOUS INJURY | WRONGFUL DEATH

In emotional appeal to US Jewish leaders, Zelensky calls Russian invasion ‘pure Nazism’ Ron Kampeas, Asaf Shalev

WASHIN GTON ( JTA)—In an emotional call with American Jewish leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky characterized the Russian invasion of his country as “pure Nazism.”

Zelensky also invoked his Jewishness in an appeal for assistance while speaking Monday, March 7 via Zoom with the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.

On the call, Zelensky angrily rejected claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia launched the war to “deNazify” Ukraine, saying that it was the Russians who were acting like Nazis.

“This is just pure Nazism,” Zelensky said of the indiscriminate Russian attacks that have killed civilians. “He’s just destroying the citizens of Ukraine of different nationalities. This is just pure Nazi behavior. I can’t even qualify this in any different manner.”

He also decried Putin’s demand that Ukraine concede totally and likened what is happening to the start of the Nazi Holocaust.

“For some reason, we have to kneel down and give our weapons away. We have to hoist the Russian flag. We are supposed to say that we don’t want anything, we want to put our hands up,” Zelensky

said. “Listen, all of this already happened.

In Europe. All of this happened during Nazi times when the German army rolled through Europe and everyone gave the Jewish people away.”

A portion of the meeting was held privately. During the public portion of the meeting, Zelensky invoked, as he has several times before, Russian strikes near areas of Jewish importance, including the site of the Babyn Yar mass murder during the Nazi Holocaust, and Uman, a sacred site to haredi Orthodox Jews.

And he said he felt intense sympathy with Americans on 9/11, when he realized that all people are connected.

“Despite the fact that I’m a Ukrainian citizen with Jewish blood, I was looking at what was happening with the American people and it was as painful to me,” he said through an interpreter. “It was hurting because I thought if America is not protected, if terrorists can just kill people.… If the Twin Towers are falling down in the United States it can happen in Ukraine as well.”

Also speaking on the call, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, invoked Golda Meir, the Israeli prime minister who was born in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “It would be great to have her now with us,” she said. “I think she would help a lot.”

Local and Experienced…a winning combination!

Israel to allow 25,000 non-Jewish Ukrainian immigrants to stay Ron Kampeas

(JTA)—In response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, Israel is ready to take in 5,000 new non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees and to allow 20,000 non-Jewish Ukrainians who are already in the country, many illegally, to remain.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked made the announcement Tuesday, March 8.

Israel’s Law of Return normally offers citizenship only to people with at least one Jewish grandparent.

Israel had previously courted controversy for demanding a deposit from

non-Jewish migrants of around $3,000, to make sure that they would eventually leave. That stipulation has been dropped.

Israel is also preparing to receive several thousand Jewish Ukrainians.

“The sights of war in Ukraine and the suffering experienced by its citizens rattle the soul and don’t allow us to remain indifferent,” The Times of Israel quoted Shaked as saying at a press conference.

Meanwhile, Haaretz reported that 440 Russian Jews arrived in Israel, as that country’s economy buckles under the sanctions imposed by the West.

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jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 9

THANK YOU LEGACY DONORS!

Today, we honor and thank our Legacy donors, who have committed themselves to the future of the Tidewater Jewish community. Your gift(s) will help meet the challenges and needs our community faces for generations to come.

If your name is in blue, you have formalized your LIFE & LEGACY gift and helped our cherished organizations reach their goals. By putting your gift in writing, you’ve made a lasting commitment to Jewish futures in Tidewater and around the world. Thank you!

Betram* & Gladys G. Aaron Laurent Abitbol Rachel & David Abraham Rachel & Marc Abrams Adelle & Herman* Adler Helen & Warren Aleck Janice Aleck Kimberley & C. Earl Allsbrook Susan Alper & Steven Harwood Benjamin Altschul Sylva B. Altschul* Jasmine Amitay Tamar & Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz Jordan Asher & Jody Mattison Avraham Ashkenazi Patricia Ashkenazi*

Andrew & Leslie Auerbach Rosalyn Levy August Gail & Thomas* Bachman Jody Balaban Linda & Leigh Baltuch Bessie Banks* Michael & Roslyn Barney Jack & Bobby Barr* Helen Jayne & Melvin Barr* Alan & Dolores* Bartel Gary Bartel Marlene Bass* Elena & Gary Baum Susan & Jon Becker Linda & Calvin Belkov* Lisa Benjamin I. William & Gail Berger Amos & Marcia Berkovich Beth Berman & Danny Griff Carole & William* Bernstein

10 | JEWISH NEWS | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Helene Bernstein Roy & Lorie Beskin Frances Levy Birshtein* Paula & Michael Blachman Herman & Leyba (Lee)* Blumenthal Moira Wright Bodner David & Bonnie Brand Rasha & Rabbi Levi Brashevitzky Louis Brenner* Trusts of Mr. Percy A. Brill* Elyssa Brinn Joan Brock Edmund Brodie* Leonard & Eleanor Brooke Robert & Marjorie Brotman Steven & Beryl Brown Allan & Carol Roth Brum Kelly Burroughs

Alice Buxbaum Stephanie Adler Calliot & Don London David & Elyse Cardon Jeffrey Chernitzer Rita Cogan* David & Charlene Cohen Leo & Loretta* Cohen Ronnie Jacobs Cohen Ruth & Aaron* B. Cohen Harvey & Barbara Coleman Allan & Jean* Comess William & Raizel Cook Charles & Minette Cooper Jeff & Allison Cooper John & Monica Cooper Ann & Robert Copeland Todd & Robin Copeland Stuart* Davis Lisa & Mark Delevie

Arthur & Renee* Diamonstein Glenn & Esther Diskin Larry & Judy Dobrinsky Allan & Susan Donn Mark & Avigayil Draluck Nathan & Leora Drory Bronia* Drucker Barbara Dudley David & Ingrid Edery Andrea Eichelbaum Wendy & Ron Brodsky Lois & Barry Einhorn Susan & Martin* Einhorn Devorah & Morris Elstein Dianne Epplein & John Patton Edwin Epstein Thelma* Fantuch William & Mary Feldman Jules* & Frieda Feuer Andrew & Barbara Fine

Kare Morr Sheld Kim Mand Joel & Mona Alan Anne Gail F Josep Seth Barb Adam Sand Hele Rita Edwi Harr Wend Marv Alan Jack Fann Fri Jay & Jerom Lesli Mark Robe Shar Peggy David Barb We Kare Hele Amy Pam Gla Hara Mart Rose Pearl Carly Dona Willi Norm Beatr Char Go Elain Jane Elain Jan & Steve Laur Rober Barb Dani Jame Harr Bern Sue G Ralph Yehu Sch Laur Louis Mich Rose Carla Send Fay H Willi

stein

n

atton

Karen & Matthew Fine Morris & Jan Fine Sheldon & Nancy Fineman Kim & Andrew Fink Mandi & Ross Firoved Joel & Gail Flax Mona Flax Alan & Esther Fleder* Anne & Lawrence Fleder Gail Fleder Joseph Fleischmann* Seth & Nataly Fleishman Barbara L. Fletcher* Adam & Kristy Foleck Sandra Forte-Nickenig Helen Frank Rita & Daniel* Frank Edwin Franklin Harry & Barbara Fried Wendi & Giora Fried Marvin & Claire Friedberg Alan & Beverly Frieden Jack & Jodie Frieden Fannie, Milton, & Leslie Friedman Family Foundtion Jay & Celia Friedman Jerome & Sandra Friedman Leslie Friedman Mark & Debbie Friendman Robert & Alicia Friedman Shari Friedman Peggy & Leonard Frierman* David & Penny Gallo Barb Gelb & Kenny J. Weinstein Karen Gershman Helen & Lee Gifford* Amy & George Ginsburg Pam & Benjamin* A. Gladstone Hara & Steven Frei Martha & Richard* Glasser Rose Frances Glasser* Pearl H. Glassman* Carly & Chen Glikman Donald & Gail Gogan William A. Goldback* Norman & Farideh Goldin Beatrice & Harry Goldman* Charles & Dorothy S. Goldman Elaine Goldman Jane Klein Goldman Elaine & Morton* Goldmeier Jan & Lawrence* J. Goldrich Steven Goldstein Laurie & Gary Siegel Robert & Martha Goodman Barbara Gordon Daniel & Janet* Gordon James & Paula Gordon Harry & Joyce Graber Bernie & Helene Grablowsky Sue Graves Ralph & Carol Greenhut Yehudah & Helen Schloss-Griffin Laura & Fredric Gross Louis Grossman Michael & Sharon Grossman Rose Ann Grossman* Carla & Guerry Grune Sender & Chamie Haber Fay Halpern* William & Jeri Jo Halprin

Byron & Amie Harrell Ellen & Jonathan T. Harris Stuart & Mickey Held Zena Herod Jason & Denise Hoffman Marcia Hofheimer & Melvin* Morrison Thomas Hofheimer* Marilyn & Stanely* Holzsweig Abbey & Brenda Horwitz Howard & Susan Rowe-Horwitz Shyrlee Hurwitz & Oscar Brown Marc* & Connie Jacobson Nancy & Edwin* Jacobson Bernard & Lee Jaffe* Nathan & Beth Jaffe Michael Jaffe Joel & Carol Jason Gabriele Jiannas Barbara Johnson Sheila & Robert Josephberg Stewart & Eileen Kahn David Kamer & Marcia Samuels Barry & Reatha Kantor J. Jerry & Kathy Kantor Bernice Kaplan* Bruce & Phyllis Kaplan Libbie & Albert* Kaplan Phyllis & Arthur Kaplan* Scott & Erica Kaplan Sue & Stanley Kaplan Joy Kaps Mimi & Warren* Karesh Betsy & Ed Karotkin Florence Karp* Aaron & Melissa Kass Larry & Ellen Katz Alene & Ron Kaufman Edward Kaufman Linda & George* Kaufman Steven & Marilyn Kayer Debra & Donold Keeling Reva Kelberg* Benjay & Marissa Kempner Arlene & Isidoro Kessel Howard & Arlene* Kesser Kay & M. Barron* Kesser Arnold & Janna Kestenbaum Jay & Jodi Klebanoff Andrew & Esther Kline Albert & Wendy Konikoff David & Sofia* Konikoff Melanie Kordis Jay & Joyce Kossman Cindy & Ron Kramer Ed & Anne Kramer Rabbi Marc Kraus Celia K. Krichman* Irwin & Ruthi Kroskin* David* & Sylvia Krug Sue Kurtz David & Nicole Kushner Howard & Alma Laderberg* David & Jody Laibstain Phyllis* & David Lannik Robert Lansing Leon & Selma Leach* Sharon Leach Edward & Ruth Legum Jay & Leslie* Legum Steven & Lorna Legum Martin & Ina Leiderman

Corrie Lentz Arnold & Telsa* Leon David Leon Lisa Leon Miles & Sandra P. Leon Betty Ann & Scott Levin Natalie & Seymor Levinson Kirk & Amy Levy Paula & Ronald* Levy Joel & Gail R. Lewis Mark Lipton Gershon & Sara Litt Jeffrey & Elayne Littman Mordechai & Ariella Loiterman Karen & Richard Lombart Joan London Becca Lovitz Jason Lovitz Marcia Lovitz Bernard Lubschutz* Joseph & Joanie Lust Herman Mallick* Rosalin & Martin Mandelberg B. Thomas Mansbach Raizel & Rabbi Shmuel Margolin Rychel Margolin Martin Marin Brandy Martire Noah & Paola Matilsky Bernard & Debbie Mayer Eric & Claudia Mazur Thomas & Andrea McGuinness Jerry & Deborah Meltsner Sara Menda Janet & Rick Mercadante Bryan & Ellen Mesh David & Alicia Metzger George & Linda Metzger Jerold & Laura Miller Tanya Miller Betty Moritz Heather & Doug Moore Burton & Marcia Moss Alyssa & Jonathan Muhlendorf Evelyn Munden Michael & Rena Myers Stacey Neuman Norbert & Sarah Newfield Mimi & Frederic* Nicholson Alan & Susan Nordlinger Bertram & Louis Nusbaum* Charles & Nancy Nusbaum Joan L. Nusbaum* Marlene & Neville Frankel Robert* Nusbaum & Linda Laibstain William Nusbaum Carolyn Osman* Bryan & Kelli Ann Pace Abbey Pachter Joseph & Barbara Patish* Linda Peck Paul & Stephanie Peck Stanley & Nancy Peck Erinn & Felix Portnoy David & Rona Proser Eleanor & Julian Rashkind* Ann & Allen* G Richter Zelma & Bernard Rivin Mark Roesen* Joan Rose & Peter Sharpe

Neil & Regina Rose Carole & Monte Rosenberg* Malcolm* & Diane Rosenberg Walter & Helen Rosenberg Judith Rosenblatt Barbara & Fred* H. Rosenblum Ellen & Scott Rosenblum Gene & Sharon Ross Louis Rostov* Joanne Batson & Philip Rovner Arthur & Miriam Ruberg Abraham L. Rubin* Joel & Sara Jo Rubin Robert & Judy Rubin Gavriel & Malka Rudin Paula & Thomas Russel Leonard & Sarita Sachs* Warren & Karen Sachs Hal* & Annabel Sacks Ada S. Salsbury Stanley & Linda Samuels Art & Annie Sandler Toni Sandler Judy Saperstein Leon & Terri Sarfan Larry & Natalie Saunders* Richard & Laure Saunders Margaret & William Sawyer Stephen & Margery Schechner Louis & Edie Schlain Lynn Schoenbaum Rachel Schoenbaum Craig & Joanna Schranz Elaine & Joashua Schulman Peter Schulman Alfred & Helen* Schulwolf J. William & Ruby Schwarzschild Ruth Schwetz* Naomi Limor Sedek Miriam & Robert* Seeherman Patti & Paul D. Seeman Deborah & Peter Segaloff Orit Amar Seiderman Robert & Lynn-Anne Seltzer Norman & Sandy Sher Louis & Carol Sherman Annette Shore* Gary Siegel & Laurie Goldsticker Kenneth & Marilyn Siegel Lawrence & Leslie Siegel Max Siegel Barry Simon Britt & Shelly Simon Carin & Mike Simon Marvin* & Marilyn Simon Harris & Cheryl Sloane Larry & Jill Smith Harry Snyder Louis & Pam Snyder Helen & Daniel Sonenshine Norman Soroko Barbara & Herman* Spigel Ron & Linda Spindel Dorothy & Ronold Spitalney Debbie Stadlin Alan & Brenda Stein Jane & Edward Stein Robert & Mimi Stein Stuart Stein Yisroel & Michal Stein

Ira & Jean Steingold Joseph Steingold Lawrence Steingold Helen Stern Lisa Stern Neal Stern, Tara Sungaard, & Family John & Renee Strelitz Joyce & Leonard Strelitz* Randi & Ellis J. Strelitz Burle & Robin Stromberg Steve Suskin Sandy Tabachnick Gary & Kevin Tabakin Paul & Marcy Terkeltaub Marian Ticatch Alan & Linda Troy Hilary Truman Nancy Tucker Vivian & Paul* L. Turok Jody & Alan Wagner Patricia & Jules Wainger Alvin & Nancy Wall Carol & Stanley Waranch* Doris & Seeman* Waranch Martin & Trudy Waranch June & Oscar Warner* David Warsof Joel Warsof Lisa & Steven Warsof Amy & Eliot Weinstein Lawrence Weinstein & Carol Downing Matthew & Giselle Weinstein Miriam & Harry Weisberg* Samuel & Diane Werbel Adam White Eric & Vicki White Matthew & Valerie White Matthew & Valeria Williamson Steven* Yetiv Tina Yomtob Harold Zedd Amy & Frank Zelenka Betty & Harry Zetlin* Dorothy Zimmerman Ashley & Greg Zittrain Anonymous (54) *of blessed memor y Accurate as of 2/25/2022 Denotes formalization of LIFE & LEGACY gift(s) from FY 2017 — FY 2022.

Denotes member who has made new gifts, commitments, or increased the value of existing commitments in the past 12 months.

jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 11

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(JTA)—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Israel for its support for his country, Sunday, March 6, the day after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow for a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I am grateful to Israel for their support for Ukraine,” Zelensky said, according to a translation published by The Times of Israel. “We need the support of all countries and we were talking about the support we need now and how we are going to cooperate in the future after the war.”

Zelensky did not mention Bennett by name, nor did he mention Bennett’s meeting with Putin. Zelensky said March 3 that he does not feel Bennett “has wrapped himself in the Ukrainian flag” throughout the first weeks of the war.

Bennett met with Putin for three hours before flying to Berlin to speak with

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He also spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron over the phone and has spoken with Zelensky three times since the meeting with Putin.

At the beginning of the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Bennett said Israel had a “moral obligation” to try to negotiate between Ukraine and Russia, though he said he could not elaborate on the status of his talks with Putin and Zelensky.

Israel occupies an unusual position among Western countries due to its close relations with both Ukraine and Russia.

Zelensky had previously asked Israel to serve as an intermediary between the two countries.

Israel has declined to condemn Russia as forthrightly as other Western countries since the beginning of the war. Though Israel declined to sign a U. N. Security Council resolution condemning Russia, it did sign onto a resolution by the U. N. General Assembly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Stolichnaya is out. Stoli is in.

Chelsea soccer team for sale.

Jacob Gurvis and JN staff

A

favorite vodka and popular soccer club are making their distance from Russia clear.

Yuri Shefler, the Jewish owner of the once Russian and iconic vodka, Stolichnaya, has changed the name to Stoli in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“While I have been exiled from Russia since 2000 due to my opposition to Putin, I have remained proud of the Stolichnaya brand,” said Shefler in a statement. “Today, we have made the decision to rebrand entirely as the name no longer represents our organization.

More than anything, I wish for ‘Stoli’ to represent peace in Europe and solidarity with Ukraine.”

Stoli’s production facilities are located in Latvia, where they have been since Shefler was exiled.

A Russian Jew, Shefler has both UK and Israeli citizenship.

Roman Abramovich, the Russian Jewish billionaire under scrutiny over his ties to President Putin, announced March 2 he is selling the Chelsea Football Club he has owned since 2003.

Abramovich wrote in a statement: “As I have stated before, I have always taken decisions with the Club’s best interest at heart. I have therefore taken the decision to sell the Club, as I believe this is in the best interest of the Club, the fans, the employees, as well as the Club’s sponsors and partners.”

Abramovich also pledged that “all net proceeds” raised from the sale will go toward aid to “victims of the war in Ukraine.”

“This includes providing critical funds towards the urgent and immediate needs of victims, as well as supporting the longterm work of recovery,” he wrote. (JTA)

2o22 Summer

camp

Supplement to Jewish News March 14, 2022 jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | Camp | JEWISH NEWS | 13

14 | JEWISH NEWS | Camp | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

camp

Sababa Beachaway

Two-week sessions begin Tuesday, June 28

Your Home Away From Home

A

Jewish co-ed residential summer camp in beautiful Virginia Beach, Sababa immerses campers in the magic and majesty of the beach, adds the right amount of spiritual practice, and provides a fun, noncompetitive, yet challenging camp experience.

Campers have the opportunity to immerse themselves in fun pursuits and stoke their innate spiritual flame while having a great time at the beach.

Two-week sessions invite campers to escape the grind to ride the wave, catch the wind, explore the sea, and capture the moment. Whether on a surfboard, in a sailboat, or under the sea scuba diving, Sababa campers learn exhilarating new skills, gain expertise and build lifelong relationships.

Residing at Virginia Wesleyan University, Sababa welcomes campers from rising 5th–11th grade. There is a special CIT program for rising 12th graders.

Attend one, two, or all three sessions.

From splashing in the lake to the glowing warmth of the campfire, Capital Camps sets the stage for making memories that last a lifetime.

Spaces are still available for summer 2022 but spots are filling fast!

Visit our website for current program availability and to register:

capitalcamps.org

info@capitalcamps.org

301.468.2267

jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | Camp | JEWISH NEWS | 15

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REGISTER AT CAMPJCC.ORG 16 | JEWISH NEWS | Camp | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

camp

Virginia Stage Company

Two-week camp sessions: June through August

V

irginia Stage Company is bringing back in-person camps this summer at the Wells Theatre. Campers will engage their imaginations through a collaborative theatrical experience.

The Stage Company’s professional theater artists will lead fun-filled activities such as playwriting, character development, improvisation, movement, games, and more. Held at The Governor’s School for the Arts and the historic Wells Theatre, all camps create and present a unique production to perform for friends and family. Good for middle and high school ages.

Learn more: www. vastage.org.

Capital Camps: A Jewish summer home

N

estled in the Ca to c t i n Mountains, Capital Camps has been the summer home for Jewish youth from throughout Tidewater for more than three decades!

Whether it’s swinging through the trees on a zipline, trying out a new sport, or coming together as a community to celebrate Shabbat, Capital Camps offers the Jewish overnight camping experience of a lifetime.

Spaces are still available for many of the camp’s summer 2022 sessions. Learn more and register at capitalcamps.org.

jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | Camp | JEWISH NEWS | 17

camp

Be a star with the Hurrah Players Spring Break Camp: April 11–15

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Summer Camp: 4 Sessions June 20–July 1, July 5–15, July 18–29, August 1–12

hile the primary purpose is education, Hurrah strives to go beyond simply teaching dramatic skills, endeavoring to instill in its students and audiences a full and enduring appreciation of the theatre.

Hurrah’s professional quality work is provided to the public at affordable prices so that a wide diversity of the community might be able to attend live theatrical productions. Recognized repeatedly by local and regional media and theatrical organizations, The Hurrah Players have received many awards for its creative and innovative work. www.hurrahplayers.com or 757-627-5437.

Sababa Beachaway is a co-ed Jewish sleepaway camp where young people can make friends, relax and ride the waves. At Sababa, we surf, sail, scuba dive and have a blast at the beach. Our campers have a chance to live Sababa, tackle new experiences, be inspired and find their passion. info@sabababeachaway.org • www.sabababeachaway.org

Three 2-week sessions located at Virginia Wesleyan University, Virginia Beach, VA (for rising 5th through 11th graders). Special discounted CIT program for rising 12th graders.

Come for 1, 2 or All 3 Sessions Session 1: June 28 – July 10 Session 2: July 12 – July 24 Session 3: July 26 – August 8 One session: $3,640 Two sessions: $7,280 Three sessions: $9,900

SABABA BEACHAWAY • JEWISH CAMP AT THE BEACH 18 | JEWISH NEWS | Camp | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Camp JCC Weekly sessions June 21–August 12 Last Blast Camp August 15–August 26 Ages 4 through teens

T

he ultimate day camp with great traditions, a state-of-the-art facility, and an outstanding staff, Camp JCC offers an atmosphere of spirit, togetherness, and fun.

Camp JCC prides itself on safety and quality programming.

Specialists in aquatics, arts and crafts, performing arts, Judaics, and sports and recreation provide days of skills-oriented and socialization activities.

Camp activities include daily swimming (instructional and recreational swim for younger campers), arts and music, sports, dancing, gaga, fishing, mini-golf, special theme days, tie-dye, and lots more.

Camp JCC is open to everyone of all faiths and backgrounds.

For more information, call the camp office at 757-3212306 or Dave Flagler, Camp JCC director, at 757-452-3182.

camp

Camp is back!

FIRST PERSON

From junior counselor to unit head, a Camp JCC journey Kate-Lynn Cipolla

M

y journey working at Camp JCC started in 2017 when I was hired as a junior counselor and assigned to work with rising kindergarteners. Much like everyone starting a new job, I was hesitant, nervous, anxious, and excited to be given this opportunity. That summer I embraced new challenges, learned about myself and children, and even found myself sad when camp was over.

In 2018, I stepped away from camp after graduating high school to pursue other interests. However, I quickly knew I needed to come back to Camp JCC since I felt something was missing. In 2019, I became a senior counselor for rising third and fourth graders. This position brought more growth for me and a chance to receive

more hands-on experience. I did not attend summer camp as a child, so I was overjoyed when I was given the opportunity to experience the fun while working.

At the beginning of the summer, orientation is filled with strangers, but by the summer’s end, the staff has lifelong friends to laugh with until your stomach hurts. In fact, I still keep in touch with counselors and specialists I met in 2017. I could not see myself working anywhere else in the summer since I truly look forward to it each year.

Through my years working at Camp JCC I have had the privilege of meeting so many amazing people including counselors, campers, staff, and parents. I have built relationships with counselors that are unbreakable and have strengthened over time. Working at camp is not just a

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Kate-Lynn Cipolla

summer job, but an enriching experience. I look forward to summer time since I know I will reconnect with my JCC family and campers that I have watched grow up. I am very thankful I am able to have the opportunity to work for a place that feels like my second home.

In 2021, I was promoted to Camp Gadol unit head and I am excited to resume this position again this summer. Being a part of the Camp leadership team is incredible.

Each member on the team is full of ideas and brings so much enthusiasm, talent, and experiences to the table.

This past summer presented many unique challenges in adapting our camp program to meet COVID-19 safety measures. Scheduling, camper cohorts, and activity set-ups proved especially challenging. Campers and counselors rallied together when it came to following safety protocols to make sure that the program could run smoothly.

This summer I am looking forward to cultivating new relationships with campers and staff, as well as sharing knowledge and experiences. I anticipate more campers this summer as Camp JCC’s program continues to get bigger and better. There is truly something for everyone such as fishing, art, sports, drama, instructional swim, and my favorite…free swim.

JCC is the place to be for summer adventures, making memories and meeting lifelong friends. I am counting down the days for warmer weather and the first day of camp!

Session 1 June 20th- July 1st Session 2 July 5th -15th Session 3 July 18th- 29th Session 4 August 1st- 12th

No Experience Necessary!

Just a drive to have fun and learn about Musical Theater and Theater Basics!

For ages 5+ To enroll go to www.hurrahplayers.com or call 757-627-5437

Come be a Star at Hurrah!

To learn more about Camp JCC, or to hear about year-round opportunities for teens in the community, contact Dave Flagler, director of Camp and Teen Engagement, at DFlagler@ UJFT.org or 757-452-3182. jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | Camp | JEWISH NEWS | 19

20 | JEWISH NEWS | Camp | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

B’TAYAVON

Equivalent to French’s Bon Appetit, B’Tayavon in Jewish News is where locals share favorite recipes.

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE

This issue features one of Sandy Goldberg’s favorites.

INGREDIENTS

Corned Beef and Cabbage

1 Corned Beef

Sandy Goldberg

Seasoning package or 2T pickling spice.

I

am Jewish and my wife, Anne Bernadette, was born in Dublin. So, we have this mixed culture going where traditional Irish and Jewish foods are both served.

I do all the cooking and when I planned to serve Corned Beef and Cabbage my wife told me her Irish family eats Bacon (Ham) and Cabbage. A little research quickly explained.

The proximity of the Irish and Jewish communities in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the mid-1800s and early 1900s is said to be largely responsible for the popularity of corned beef among the Irish immigrants. When the Irish arrived in America, they couldn’t find a bacon joint (pork store) as they had in Ireland, so they gravitated toward the Jewish corned beef like their Jewish neighbors ate.

We settled on Corned Beef because we both prefer it.

Quartered large onion 4 cloves smashed garlic 2 whole carrots, peeled 2 stalks celery, with leaves, cut in 3 pieces each 1 can of beer Water to cover

DIRECTIONS

Sandy Goldberg has taken cooking classes throughout the world including in Paris, Rome, Florence, Bangkok, Barcelona, Dublin, Los Angeles, and at the Kitchen Barn in Virginia Beach. During the day, he’s the lead account executive for Jewish News.

Phototgraphy by Terri Denison.

Sandy Goldberg.

The day before you plan to serve, place all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a slow boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 2 hours, or until slightly fork tender.

Remove corned beef carefully to avoid breaking. Place in lasagna pan and add broth from pot.

Save the rest of the broth to boil cabbage and potatoes.

Refrigerate overnight.

While cold, place on cutting board and use very sharp knife to slice. MUST cut across the grain for tenderness…with the grain is stringy and tough. Place slices back into pan with broth, cover with foil and heat slowly in a 225 oven.

Serve with boiled cabbage and potatoes.

jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 21

JEWISH TIDEWATER FIRST PERSON

Knitting to remember and teach Wendy Auerbach

K

nitting and the Holocaust. Two things that most people would not automatically connect. Tanya Singer, founder of the research project, Knitting Hope, seeks to explore this connection through knitted textiles created during the Holocaust.

Whether a ragged baby blanket or an oversized sweater, all of us keep and save objects that evoke strong memories.

“Handmade objects, or even the memory of one, can spark a powerful emotional response even decades later,” says Singer. “Knitting Hope ensures that knitting’s role in Jewish material culture is recognized for the significant impact it has had on maker and wearer alike.”

Holocaust education and knitting knowledge are an important part of this mix. When I first saw an online article by Singer, I could not believe that someone had actually married (or should I say knit) these passions of mine together. I have been active with the the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater for nearly three decades and an avid knitter for most of my life.

In March 2021, when the COVID pandemic seemed especially endless, Singer launched Knitting Hope’s first outreach with a knit along (Knitters all making the same thing at the time) of a pattern

adaptation for a small red dress made for Judy Fleischer Kolb by her grandmother in the Shanghai Ghetto.

For six weeks via zoom, Singer alternately hosted sessions on how to navigate some of the more technical knitting involved with the red dress with educational sessions related to Holocaust education. Hundreds of people knit the red dress and dozens tuned in each week for the sessions, creating an amazing community spread all over the world.

At the knit along’s conclusion, more than 50 red dresses were donated to the Illinois Holocaust Museum, where the little red dress is exhibited. The dresses will be used in the learning trunks sent out by the museum as part of their educational outreach programing.

Knitting Hope also helped connect people on many levels. For example, one of last spring’s speakers, Rena Berlin, the former education director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum who lives in Richmond, spoke about her efforts to pass legislation mandating Holocaust education in Virginia. Unfortunately, she felt the law had had little teeth and hadn’t made a significant impact. I later connected with her and shared that the Holocaust Commission with the help of JCRC’s across the state had actually gotten an amendment passed in February of 2020 with a

plan for a meaningful curriculum to be implemented by the fall of 2023.

Knitting Hope’s current undertaking, Wendy Auerbach’s blue sweater. the Dayenu knit along, started March 7, but it is not too late to join. gesture of remembrance during this festival As Passover approaches, Singer will be of freedom. hosting a series of zoom webinars and disThe line up of speakers promises to cussion sessions tied to a pattern inspired be well worth the time, even if viewers

by Holocaust Survivor, Helena Weinruch. are not knitting a blue sweater. Speakers Weinruch, who is 97, has worn her include Jodi-Eicher Levine, author of elegant, bright blue metallic sweater with Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint angora sleeves for decades each year at Rabbis: How Jews Craft Resilience and Create Passover. As the Knitting Hope website Community, and Stephanie Butnick, Tablet explains, “After WWII, Helena met Ann deputy editor and co-host of the Unorthodox Rothman, a knitter who survived in the podcast. (She will also be in Virginia Beach Lodz Ghetto by knitting for Nazi wives.

April 7. See page 26.)

Once free, Ann knit Helena a sweater that Singer says she plans to “keep sharing would have been the height of elegance in stories of the ways women turned to knitthe 1940’s, something only a free person ting or knitted objects to resist, remember could wear. Ann asked Helena to ‘wear it and rebuild their lives after the Shoah.” She to remember them.’” also continues to search for garments such This varied and rich knitting commuas the dress and sweater. nity created by Tanya Singer is one of the Knitters in Hampton Roads who are silver linings of COVID. As a test knitter participating or plan with the blue sweater for the pattern, I can say it is a great project as part of the Dayenu Knit Along, please for beginners, and if it is not a style that contact me at wjuren610@gmail.com. I you see yourself wearing, consider making would like to make the connection. one for someone who might enjoy it. The plan is for those who have knit Dayenu For more information on the Dayenu Knit sweaters to wear them on Passover as a Along, visit www.knittinghope.com.

Congregation Beth El is open and active Ronnie Jacobs Cohen

B

e happy it’s Adar!! That is how Deb Segaloff, president of Congregation Beth El, encourages members to get excited about Purim—the Purim Shpiel, Megillah reading, and hamentaschen taking place at the synagogue on Wednesday, March 16 at 5:45 pm. That is just one of the many exciting programs happening at Beth El. Nearly every month, Erev Shabbat at Beth El may be enjoyed in-person as

well as on livestream, either at the soothing, acoustic Shabbat Unplugged or the upbeat, electric Rockin’ Shabbat. Shabbat Unplugged is an intimate, warm service performed by David Cardon on guitar, Jonah David on drums and percussion, Howard Horwitz on violin, and Rabbi Adam Ruditsky on guitar. The Tribe, comprised of Brad Bangel on bass guitar, David Cardon on vocals and acoustic guitar, Ron Gladstone on drums, and Andy Rabiner on lead guitar, bring the

22 | JEWISH NEWS | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

joy of Shabbat with Rockin’ Shabbat.

Musicians—either acoustic or electric— are welcome to participate. Contact the Beth El office at 757-625-7821.

If learning, growing, and making new friends is of interest, join Rabbi Ron Koas and friends for Torah on Trails. Meet for a group hike while sharing words of wisdom and listening to nature. Rabbi Koas also leads discussions on hot Jewish topics at Torah on Tap, the second Wednesday of every month, hosted in various homes.

Lunch & Learn is a weekly opportunity to gather with the rabbi for a bit of nosh and discussion at Beth El. “Congregation Beth El is pleased to be open again and offering a variety of diverse, inclusive, welcoming, and meaningful ways to get involved and celebrate being Jewish together,” says Segaloff.

For more information or to check the dates of upcoming services and events, visit www. bethelnorfolk.com.

UKRAINE Former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir is a hero to Ukrainians in the fight against Russia Philissa Cramer

(JTA)—The most prominent Jewish figure in Ukraine right now is the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The runner-up may well be another country’s famous Jewish leader.

Golda Meir, the fourth prime minister of Israel and a native of Kyiv whose family fled amid antisemitic violence, has loomed large ever since Russia launched its war on Ukraine. Her words have appeared in pro-Ukrainian memes, been quoted by Ukrainian diplomats and even pulled from the backpack of a battle-ready Ukrainian soldier.

Almost as soon as the war began, memes riffing on a quote often attributed to Meir, adapted to the current conflict, began circulating online.

“If Russia lays down its weapons, there is no war. If Ukraine lays down its weapons, there is no Ukraine,” read one widely shared tweet, which its author attributed to “a Ukrainian Christian.”

But it is actually an adaptation of a quote widely attributed to Meir, who led Israel during and after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which Israel won at great cost weeks after Egypt and Syria, which had amassed troops on Israel’s borders for months, invaded from multiple directions.

“If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel,” goes the quote, which has been attributed to Meir on memes for more than a decade.

Meir’s comments appear to have resonated widely with Ukrainians, who are in a fight for their country’s survival.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States said, “just wants us to stop being Ukrainians. He wants to demilitarize us, and he wants us to be neutral. Now of course, that means we have to agree to surrender and die. And here I can [paraphrase] a great woman who I admire [and who] was born in Kyiv and led the brave country of Israel: The Russians want us to die. We want to live so that doesn’t leave a lot of space for

compromise.”

That paraphrase does sound like Meir, who famously discarded the idea of compromising with Israel’s Arab neighbors.

“To be or not to be is not a question of compromise,” she told the New York Times in 1973. “Either you be or you don’t be.”

On Tuesday, March 8, an Israeli reporter encountered a Ukrainian soldier who pulled a hefty biography of Meir from his backpack. The soldier said he keeps the biography—a Ukrainian-language translation of the 2009 book Golda by Elinor Burkett—alongside his night-vision device, water, and hat.

“This is my favorite book,” he said. “I take it with me even if it will be my last battle.”

The soldier, who is not Jewish, said he is a Ukrainian patriot—and “I think that Ukraine have [to] say thanks to Jewish people.”

In fact, Meir has become something of an icon among Ukrainian leaders who are eager to claim her as a native daughter, according to a 2018 report in the Jerusalem Post. Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire when she lived there.

“The loose connection Meir had to Ukraine was enough for the [Ukrainian] state to embrace her as ‘one of our own,’” Eli Belotserkovsky, then Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine, told the newspaper.

“Today Ukrainian-Israeli relations are marked by a great deal of friendship and will to work together. When Ukrainian leaders mark the contributions Ukrainian Jews made to the creation of the [Israeli] state one of the first names to be brought up is Meir. This is a major turn of history as the place little Meir ran away from now, 120 years later, warmly embraces her.”

Like Zelensky, Meir became renowned for the way she laid out her country’s predicament among its neighbors to her countrymen and to the world.

“We say ‘peace’ and the echo comes back from the other side, ‘war,’” she once said, in a comment that bears resemblance to ones in Zelensky’s public addresses throughout his country’s war. “We don’t want wars even when we win.”

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jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 23

IT’S A WRAP Three generations connected through storytelling

Corey Rosen shares storytelling tips from his new book.

Sierra Lautman and Hunter Thomas

S

torytelling is an ancient tradition, one that keeps generations connected—l’dor v’dor. Author Corey Rosen reached and inspired a few generations in Tidewater when he visited February 15–16 as part of the Simon Family JCC and United Jewish Federation of

Tidewater’s Konikoff Center for Learning and the Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival.

Rosen met with students at Virginia Wesleyan University on February 15, leading more than 60 students and faculty in a one-hour workshop exploring how storytelling can help people make connections with one another and bridge ideological differences.

Following his presentation at VWU, which was sponsored by the university’s Robert Nusbaum Center, Rosen spoke at Virginia MOCA in celebration of his debut book, Your Story, Well Told: Creative Strategies to Develop and Perform Stories that Wow an Audience. Rosen’s presentation was full of excitement and laughter, as he engaged the audience in interactive storytelling activities. At one point, he invited four audience members to join him on stage to create a story about a couple running into a snake on their wedding day. The night was not just entertaining, it was practical, as Rosen shared his insight into the story spine, a concept that he explains can turn any

good story into a great one.

The following day, Rosen visited Virginia Beach Gifted Middle School to teach the art of improv and storytelling to Brittney Harvey’s sixth-grade class.

The students have been working on creative writing and storytelling in their Language Arts class, and the visit with Rosen left them with games and activities that can help overcome even the most extreme case of writer’s block.

Rosen ended his Tidewater visit by speaking to, as he put it, “a room full of experienced storytellers,” at a workshop with more than 50 seniors at the Sandler Family Campus. Through telling stories of his own and leading the workshop participants in activities with their peers, Rosen guided them through the process of remembering long forgotten stories and freshening up those that have been told many times by pulling in new details.

“Corey Rosen’s visit was one of the most entertaining, up-beat presentations that I have been to in a while,” says Sherry Lieberman. “He involved his audience, was most humorous, and a real delight.

Rosen visits Virginia Beach Middle School.

Seniors at the Simon Family JCC share their stories with Rosen.

To learn about more programs, contact Sierra Lautman, director of Jewish Innovation at United Jewish Federation of Tidewater at SLautman@UJFT.org, or Hunter Thomas, director of Arts + Ideas at UJFT at HThomas@ UJFT.org.

Chabad of Tidewater’s Family Havdallah Glow Party a huge hit Rashi Brashevitzky

A

Rabbi Aaron Margolin glows.

fter Shabbat on Saturday, February 5, families from across Hampton Roads gathered in Chabad House to welcome the new week in style.

Children and parents prepared for the Havdallah ceremony by decking themselves out in glow accessories of all kinds.

The lights went out, and the room was aglow with colored mood lighting and lots of glowy fun. Rabbi Mendy Margolin led the Havdallah service, accompanied

by David Cardon on the guitar. Families joined in the beautiful musical service and welcomed a brand new week.

At the conclusion, Cardon led the

24 | JEWISH NEWS | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Harley Lubic looking glow-tactic.

Rabbi Mendy Margolin leads the Havdallah service as Rabbi Levi Brashevitzky holds the candle.

crowd in singing Eliyahu HaNavi. Lively music filled the room as the children danced, played glowing games, earned

prizes, and enjoyed delicious snacks. It was a fun evening for all.

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jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 25

WHAT’S HAPPENING Unorthodox podcast to record live in Tidewater Thursday, April 7, 7:30 pm, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art

Unorthodox hosts Mark Oppenheimer, Liel Lebovitz, and Stephanie Butnick.

Hunter Thomas

W

hat do actress Mayim Bialik, Great British Baking Show contestant Jürgen Krauss, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, and Presbyterian Pastor Henry Brinton have in common? They have all been guests of the podcast Unorthodox, the flagship podcast from Tablet Magazine, the daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture.

Unorthodox, which premiered its 300th episode just last December, prides itself on

being “the world’s leading Jewish podBatten Endowed Associate Professor of cast.” Its listenership, known as the J-Crew, Jewish Studies and Women’s Studies and listens to the podcast in more than 11 director of the Institute of Jewish Studies countries and has downloaded its episodes and Interfaith Understanding at Old more than six million times. Many of them Dominion University. “I enjoy hearing them discuss the show in a Facebook group dedengage with a variety of voices, covering icated to its listeners, which boasts more a wide breadth of experiences, identities, than 6,000 members. and cultures, while keeping the converUnorthodox is the brainsations upbeat, fast-paced, child of, and hosted by and engaging.”

Tablet senior editor Mark While many of the podOppenheimer, deputy editor cast’s conversations are Stephanie Butnick, and edilighthearted and fun, the tor-at-large Liel Leibovitz. hosts also explore more seriIts weekly episodes feature ous topics. A recent guest conversations with Jewish of the show was Rabbi and gentile guests, affecCharlie Cytron-Walker, tionately referred to as the who shared his thoughts ‘Jew and Gentile of the following the terrifying Week.’ These conversations, hostage situation that took which can cover anything place during Shabbat serfrom the history of mahvices at his congregation in The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia. jong to Jews in comics, Colleyville, Texas. Host Mark provide insight into interestOppenheimer reported ing topics and worldviews, interlaced with from Pittsburgh following the attack at banter between the hosts, questions from Tree of Life—Or L’Simcha Congregation, listeners, and often humorous retellings of and the podcast has aired episodes focusJewish news events from the past week. ing on topics such as Jewish pregnancy and “Unorthodox offers a fresh take on all reimagining the story of Purim, as well as things Jewish,” says Dr. Amy K. Milligan, annual conversations about conversion and

apologies.

The podcast was originally scheduled to record in Tidewater in 2020, but was postponed because of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s exciting that Unorthodox is finally coming to Hampton Roads,” says local Unorthodox fan Robyn Weiner. “The show continues to be relevant as the world changes, and I appreciate the hosts’ perspectives.”

The hosts are visiting Tidewater for a live recording of Unorthodox as part of Tidewater Together, presented by the Milton “Mickey” Kramer Scholar-inResidence Fund of the Congregation Beth El Foundation, in partnership with the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival.

Admission is $18 or $30 including a copy of the hosts’ book, Newish Jewish Encyclopedia. Special bundle of admission and book ends March 30. Seating is limited and advance tickets are required. Tickets can be purchased at www.JewishVA.org/ TidewaterTogether.

Hunter Thomas is director of Arts & Ideas at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater.

He can be reached at HThomas@UJFT.org.

Brith Sholom stays busy Next meeting: Sunday, April 3 Rona Proser

L

eeAnne Mallory, administrative secretary of Brith Sholom, put it quite succinctly in the organization’s bulletin when she wrote, “This has been a hard time for all, but our Brith Sholom group has not stopped being a vital part of the community.”

Although meeting in-person for the usual “deluxe” brunches, camaraderie, and inspirational speakers has not been an option since early 2020, the group has gone virtual and meets the first Sunday of the month on Zoom.

Ray Rebby, program chair, has repeatedly brought a wide variety of interesting guest speakers to these Zoom meetings.

“I want to provide meaningful and informative topics,” he says. For the next Zoom meeting on Sunday, April 3, he has planned a presentation from the Holocaust Museum in Richmond. Zoom bingo, held on the third Sunday of each month, has been a welcome source of entertainment for members throughout the pandemic.

The group was able to hold in-person brunches in October and November at the Masonic Temple on Granby Street, rather than their usual home at Beth Sholom

26 | JEWISH NEWS | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

Village. Unfortunately, the rise of the Omicron variant caused these in-person meetings to be halted. The group hopes to resume these brunches again in April at the Masonic Temple. The organization looks forward to returning to their “home” in Beth Sholom as soon as it is deemed safe to do so.

Brith Sholom is not just a social group, but also a philanthropic organization.

Alene Jo Kaufman, chair of the Charities Committee, says, “As noted in the organization’s constitution, ‘Brith Sholom is created as a charitable, benevolent and non-political organization for the purpose

of fostering and perpetuating the spirit, ideals and traditions of Judaism.’

“With this in mind, the organization continues to distribute annual gifts for educational purposes to local Jewish nonprofit organizations,” says Kaufman. “The Brith Sholom membership looks forward to continuing to donate to our community’s Jewish institutions to help ensure our Jewish future.”

For more information about Brith Sholom and its programs, contact LeeAnne Mallory at 757-461-1150 or Brith.Sholom1@gmail. com. New members are welcome.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

CALENDAR MARCH 19, SATURDAY

Kids Night Out. Children aged 4–12 with family memberships are welcome to join the fun at the Simon Family JCC for a night of swimming, gym games, snacks, and a movie. 6 pm. $20 per child, $15 for each additional sibling (max $50/family). Register by visiting or calling the Simon Family JCC front desk at 757-321-2338. For questions, contact Sarah Cooper at scooper@ujft.org.

MARCH 28, MONDAY

Society of Professionals (SOP) exclusive event with Josh Kross, creator of Unorthodox Podcast, Tablet magazine’s leading international flagship podcasts. “The Power of Communication: Reaching the Broadest Audience.” 6 pm. This will be a zoom event. The link will be sent after RSVP. For information on this or other SOP exclusive events or to RSVP, contact Ronnie Jacobs Cohen at rcohen@ujft.org or 757-321-2341.

MARCH 30, WEDNESDAY

Jewish Women Artists. The Konikoff Center for Learning, in partnership with Jewish Art Education presents this program which examines the various art forms created by female painters, sculptors, printmakers, and photographers. Their art reflects their unique life experiences and reflects the culture and times in which they lived. Free and open to the community. Includes lunch. 12 pm. Offered online and in-person at the Sandler Family Campus Pre-registration required. For more information or to register, contact Sierra Lautman at SLautman@Ujft.org or 757-965-6107.

APRIL 7, THURSDAY

Unorthodox podcast records live in Tidewater at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. 7:30 pm. $18. www.JewishVa.org/TidewaterTogether. See page 26.

Send submissions for calendar to news@ujft.org. Be sure to note “calendar” in the subject.

Include date, event name, sponsor, address, time, cost and phone.

Annual VCIC Tidewater Humanitarian Awards Dinner to honor Charlie Nusbaum Thursday, March 24, 6 pm, Westin Virginia Beach

T

he Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities’ (VCIC) annual Tidewater Humanitarian Awards honors individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the promotion of respect and understanding among people of diverse racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds in South Hampton Roads.

Charlie Nusbaum, one of this year’s recipients, is the fifth member of the Nusbaum family to receive the prestigious award.

Nusbaum is a past president of Ohef Sholom Temple and is the current vice chair of Tidewater Jewish Foundation, among his varied and many volunteer commitments for the Jewish and Charlie Nusbaum. greater Tidewater communities.

Nusbaum has served as president of S.L. Nusbaum Insurance Agency, Inc. since 1980.

In addition to Nusbaum, this year’s recipients include: Nneka Chiazor, Annette Dunbar, Scott D. Miller, and Keith H. Newby. The Distinguished Merit Award is being presented to the Hindu Temple of Hampton Roads.

This year’s VCIC Tidewater Humanitarian Awards Dinner will include an in-person reception and watch party with limited attendance, as well as a virtual presentation option.

United Jewish Federation of Tidewater is gathering reservations of those who would like to purchase a ticket for $175 to represent UJFT and TJF. To participate, contact Bobbie Wilcox at bwilcox@ujft.org.

Chabad of Tidewater Thursday, March 17, 5:30 pm, Sandler Family Campus Chabad’s Annual Purim Party is back.

Dinner, music, Purim mitzvoth, crafts, magic, face painting, balloon twists, and prizes. For more information or to RSVP, contact www.chabadoftidewater.com/ purimparty. Suggested donation, $18 per person, ages 3+.

Congregation Beth El Wednesday, March 16, 5:30 pm (dinner) 6 pm (re-telling of the story) Experience the magic of Purim with an enchanting family dinner. Ma’ariv and family-friendly megillah reading will follow, with David Cardon and Company re-telling the Purim Story. Dress up for a Purim costume parade and stay for an awe-inspiring Magic Show for all ages. For more information or to RSVP, contact Noelle at 757-625-7821 or www.bethelnorfolk.com.

Purim in Tidewater

Kempsville Conservative Synagogue Wednesday, March 16, 7:00 pm Hybrid Ma’ariv and Megillah reading. Rules for in-person attendance: vaccination with proof and masks required. Hamantashen and l’chaims will be served. Costumes encouraged. For more information, contact kbhsynagogue@gmail.com.

Temple Israel Wednesday, March 16, 7:30 pm, Zoom Enjoy an “out-of-this-world” Purimshpiel based on Star Wars, with Morde-skywalker, Princess Esther Leah, Darth Haman, Han Shelomo, Jewbakka, and Rabbi-Wan Kenobi. For more information or the Zoom link, visit www.templeisraelva.org.

Ohef Sholom Temple Wednesday, March 16, 6:30 pm, Zoom Law & Order: Shushan Villains Unit, A Shpiel by Jury. In the Jewish justice system, anti-Semitic based offenses are considered especially heinous. In Shushan City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious schmendricks are members of an elite squad known as the Shushan Villains Unit. These are their stories. For more information or the Zoom link, visit www.ohefsholom.org.

Temple Lev Tikvah Friday, March 18, 7:30 pm Temple Lev Tikvah will hold a Purim Zoom service led by Rabbi Israel Zoberman. For information and the Zoom link, contact Rabbi Zoberman at 757-617-0334.

Ellen Jaffe-Gill and Spencer Gill. Costumes optional (clothing required). Vaccinated people only, please, with masks optional.

For more information and address for the party, contact Rabbi Ellen at rabbicantorejg@gmail.com.

Tidewater Chavurah Sunday, March 20, 4–6 pm Tidewater Chavurah will host a Purim party, including a Purimshpiel using a talk-show format, at the home of Rabbi jewishnewsva.org | March 14, 2022 | JEWISH NEWS | 27

OBITUARIES ARNOLD B. BARR M.D. NORFOLK—Arnold B. Barr M.D. died at Harbor’s Edge on March 3.

He was born and grew up in Washington, D.C. He was a loving husband of 52 years and devoted father.

He went to college and medical school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1959.

After internship and residency in internal medicine, he completed a fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Washington in Seattle. He became board certified in internal medicine and endocrinology. He served for 20 years in the U.S. Public Health Service, which included seven years as chief of the internal medicine training program in Staten Island, N. Y. Moving to Norfolk in 1980, he worked for Sentara’s HMO. From 1990 to 2006 he was a medical director of the Norfolk Department of Public Health, running the clinic servicing the indigent community, most notably during the AIDS epidemic.

After retiring, he continued serving as a volunteer physician at the Chesapeake Care Free Clinic. He was a member of the South Hampton Roads Torch Club and the League of Women Voters. Among many, many interests, he was a docent at the Botanical Gardens and a proud rosarian and member of the Rose Society.

Besides his wife, daughter, and sonin-law, he is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, his sister and brother-inlaw, and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. Contributions may be made to the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, MAZON, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Arbor Day Foundation, or a charity of your choice.

DR. MARK A. LIPTON VIRGINIA BEACH—Dr. Mark A. Lipton, 59, passed away on February 27, 2022 with his family by his side.

Dr. Lipton was born in Charleston, S.C. and was the son of the late Dr. Morey and Sandra Lipton. He was a graduate of the University of Georgia and was an avid fan of the Georgia Bulldogs. He graduated from the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tenn., and was a founding

partner of the Beach Eye Care, Optometry Dept. He traveled extensively to Israel, where he was a huge supporter for various causes and had been there as recently as this past November. He was a strong believer in family, Judaism, and Israel as a top list of priorities. He was a member of Congregation Beth El, Ohef Sholom Temple, and other synagogues from here and in Charleston S.C. He is survived by his wife, Sharon Lipton, four children, Seth Lipton and his wife Brittany, Maya Lipton Hager and her husband Zach, Margaret Nowitzky and her husband Adam, and Catherine Smith. Two sisters, Rachel Lipton and her husband Phil, and Ellen Yampolsky and her husband Mark, one great aunt, Joan Goldberg Sarnoff, three grandchildren, Carter, Landon, and Kyler, his first wife, Ilene Lipton, as well as extended family members, good friends, and the many patients he cared for over the years.

A graveside service was held in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk. Online condolences may be made to the family at hdoliver.com.

JACIN MARC LISNER VIRGINIA BEACH—Jacin Marc Lisner, 30, of Chesapeake died sadly on March 4, 2022, due to an auto accident.

Jacin was a graduate of Indian River High School, was a longtime member with many local and national car clubs, including Porsche Club of America, Beachcombers Corvette Club, Tidewater Sports Car Club, Sports Car Club of America, National Auto Sport Association, and attended Ohef Sholom Temple.

Racin Jacin as he was known by many, loved cars. Jacin’s interest began as a baby and he began competitively driving go-karts as a child. At age 14 he became one of the first to obtain a competition track license. He enjoyed driving his Diasio race car at many tracks, including VIR, Summit Point, CMP, NCCAR and Langley Speedway. Jacin especially loved autocrossing his Corvette. Not only did he enjoy racing, he also wanted to share what he did and knew with others and help them get involved. A personal proud moment was when he became a driving instructor.

Since Jacin liked cars so much, it seemed almost natural for him to make a

28 | JEWISH NEWS | March 14, 2022 | jewishnewsva.org

living selling them. Going to work each day meant he would be around what he loved. He enjoyed learning about the new models and their features. Talking and helping customers came naturally to him.

Jacin spent most of his career at Cavalier Ford-Lincoln.

Survived by his parents L. Marc and Katina Lisner, his younger brother, Joshua Zacrye Lisner, grandparents, Sheal and Brenda Lisner, uncles, Charles Lisner (Diana), Bruce “Skip” Keith (Terri), Brian Keith (Faith), aunt, Charlotte Register, his many cousins, Sam Lisner, Anna Lisner, Rachel Lisner and Sarah Lisner, Ry Keith, Jennifer Boltz Quintero, Amy Register Coward, Alice Register Kent, Stefanie Boltz Newlin and Delaney Dickson, their spouses, and children, Great Aunt Janet Hill, second cousins Justin Hill, Erin Hill Miller, Allison Hill Carden, their spouses and children, along with many loving friends. He was predeceased by his maternal grandparents, Bruce J. Keith and Betty Jo Keith and his aunt, Marjorie Keith Boltz.

A closed casket service was held at the Norfolk Chapel of H.D. Oliver Funeral Apartments, officiated by Rabbi Roz Mandelberg and Rabbi Lawrence A. Forman. Burial immediately followed at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Chapel services were livestreamed. (https://www.facebook. com/hdoliverfuneralapts/) Jacin was laid to rest in Tree of Life Section IV for any of his friends that may want to know where to pay their respects to him.

Donations may be made to any local animal rescue or shelter, the SPCA, charity of your choice, or towards a wanted car part.

Jacin loved his family, all our dogs, Rhett, Desi, Lennie, Vinniem and Van and was predeceased by Waffle, Lexie, Torquee-the-Yorkie, and Ollie.

The family thanks everyone for all their kind words and shared stories. It has been a comfort to know how much our Jacin was loved by so many people in his short time with us.

MILTON DAVID STOLZENBERG HEATHSVILLE, VA.—Milton David Stolzenberg, 94, passed away peacefully at home on February 23, 2022.

Milton was born to the late Louis and Rebecca Stolzenberg on June 12, 1927 in

New Britain, Conn.

Milton graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School and joined the Navy in 1945. After the War, Milton returned home and attended Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy. After graduating with his bachelors, he took a job as a nuclear engineer and married the love of his life, Sybil, in 1951. After retirement, Milton and Sybil bought a house on the water in North Umberland, that he named Louis’ Landing. He loved to fish, tinker with his woodworking projects (even building his own boat), photography, and was always open for a good debate.

Other than his parents, Milton was preceded in death by his sister, Evelyn Turick.

Left to cherish his memory are his loving wife of 70 years, Sybil; daughters, Sandra Dineen, Julia Strout and husband Bill, and Dr. Laura Stolzenberg and husband Dan Hand; grandchildren, Jennifer Hernandez and husband Ricardo, Timothy Dineen and wife Meg and Lara Dineen; great-grandchildren, Makayla, Alex, Jackson, Alyssa, Sofia and Delaney; brother, Allen Stolzenberg.

His graveside service took place at Forest Lawn Cemetery with Rabbi Michael Panitz officiating. To leave a condolence, please visit www.altmeyerfh.com.

Please consider making a donation to your local animal shelter or the American Heart Association.

IRENE KUSHNER WEINTROB NORFOLK—Irene Kushner Weintrob, daughter of Saul and Bluma of blessed memory, died on Monday, February 28.

Her parents were Holocaust survivors.

She will be joined in Eternal rest with her son, Stuart David Weintrob, who died at a young age.

She was born in Belgium and came here as a young child.

She is survived by her husband, Joe; daughter, Emily (Michael Birger); and four grandchildren, Haim, Sarah, Yaakov, and Rivka.

Irene’s pleasure was shopping for her grandchildren. Irene was a substitute teacher in Norfolk Elementary Schools, Pre-K through the third grade for more than 20 years.

She was an active member of Temple Israel and B’nai Brith senior group.

OBITUARIES A graveside service was held at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk with Rabbi Michael Panitz officiating. Online condolences may be made at hdoliver.com.

CHARLES ENTENMANN (New York Jewish Week via JTA)—Nothing seems so Jewish as a box of Entenmann’s cake or cookies.

“All of the Jews I know bought Entenmann’s,” wrote Nancy Kalikow Maxwell in her 2009 book Typically Jewish.

The bakery earned a place in Tablet magazine’s list of “100 Most Jewish Foods,” with an essay by TV producer and foodie Phil Rosenthal singing the praises of their chocolate-covered donuts.

And yet, the family that opened the bakery on Long Island and expanded into supermarkets across the country wasn’t Jewish. Charles Edward Entenmann, the family patriarch who helped make the company a national brand and who died Feb. 24 at the age of 92, was the grandson of a German immigrant who launched the bakery in Brooklyn in 1898.

Charles Entenmann was known as a shrewd businessman and inventor, who focused on engineering and technical aspects of Entenmann’s, according to Newsday. One of the company’s innovations was see-through packaging, which let shoppers preview what kinds of cakes, cookies and danishes they were getting through a cellophane window.

The company plant in Long Island grew from five acres in 1961 to 14 acres by 2014, before Warner-Lambert bought the business for $233 million in 1978.

The Entenmann’s reputation as a “Jewish” brand owes much to its adoption, in the 1980s, of kosher certification from the Orthodox Union. The company tapped a market for budget baked goods for Jewish families and hosts—the all-dairy alternative to Stella D’Oro’s parve, or non-dairy, cakes and cookies.

In 2002, the OU’s newsletter celebrated Entenmann’s and another Jewish-adjacent brand, Thomas’ English Muffins, in an article declaring both “a kosher tradition.” In 2018, news that Bimbo Bakeries USA had

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The kosher symbol also assured people on halal and vegetarian diets that there were no pork or any other animal products in

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the recipes. “Entenmann’s success pointed out a previously under-appreciated phenomenon: the impact of kosher symbols reaches well beyond the Jewish community,” wrote Gil Marks, in his Encyclopedia of Jewish Food.

“I’m going to tell you something that’s been pretty much a secret, most of my life anyway,” his son, also named Charles, told Newsday. “He didn’t eat Entenmann’s cake.

He just wasn’t a dessert guy.”

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UKRAINE

To help Ukraine, these Jewish bakers are making hamantaschen Joe Baur

W

ith Purim just a few weeks away, a Berlin baker turned to her kitchen to whip up hamantaschen to support Ukrainian refugees fleeing the ongoing Russian invasion.

Laurel Kratochvila, the JewishAmerican owner of Fine Bagels, a New York-style bagel shop on Berlin’s East Side, got the idea when she was stuck at home quarantining with COVID and spent an entire day watching the news.

“My husband was raised in Czechoslovakia in the post-’68 Russian occupation and we were both heartbroken—him even more so,” Kratochvila says.

That led to a discussion between the two about how they could contribute to the Ukrainian cause. Purim was around the corner, when they would normally be making poppy seed and chocolate hamantaschen anyway, so they decided to launch “Hamantashen For Ukraine” and to donate their proceeds to Polish Humanitarian Action, an organization that is distributing food, hot drinks, diapers, hygiene products, and blankets, as well as providing information and transportation for newly arrived refugees from Ukraine.

So far, more than 30 home bakers and bakeries from Warsaw to Portland have signed up. A full list of participants can be found under “where to find hamantashen!” on their site.

Kratochvila reached out the day the invasion began, sharing the idea. Feeling similarly helpless and eager to do something (not to mention feeling flushed with fond memories of briefly visiting the country on a heritage trip just six months earlier).

The response from Jewish bakers across the United States was immediate and decisive. From Los Angeles and Portland to Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City, Jews were eager to lend their hamantaschen to the cause.

Tamar Fasja Unikel, a co-owner of Masa Madre in Chicago said “coming together with a world of bakers seems ideal to show the world is watching.

Purim is a holiday about survival and fight and I hope that people around the world can learn the message.” Masa Madre will be selling packs of six hamantaschen featuring their unique flavors this year— Peanut Mazapán, Cajeta Oblea and Guava Ate—and they will be donating a third of all their profits.

Megan Tucker, the owner of the L.A.based vegan Jewish deli Mort & Betty’s, felt compelled as well to get involved.

“Both my grandparents’ families survived and fled Soviet pogroms in Lithuania.

This part of my family history makes me want to do what I do best to support Ukrainian refugees.”

That means making sweet and savory hamantaschen using tart cherries and rye that Tucker says are traditional in Ukrainian cuisine.

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At Mamaleh’s Delicatessen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rachel Sundet is donating 10 percent of all their hamantaschen sales to the fundraiser. “We’ve participated in similar kinds of fundraisers (like some of the Bakers Against Racism initiatives),” says Sundet. “And it always feels better to have something to do in times when we feel helpless to what’s going on in the world.”

Supporters can choose from three flavors—chocolate-toffee, raspberry-halvah, and date-walnut-white chocolate—to purchase individually or in boxes of 12 from March 14 through March 20.

As word of the fundraiser got out, Chef Jeremy Umansky jumped on board, promising to start offering plum and peach hamantaschen for the cause at his Larder Delicatessen and Bakery in Cleveland.

“My family fled Ukraine to escape Russian persecution and death several generations ago,” says Umansky. “To see the same thing happen again in my lifetime is devastating. Coming together with my Ukrainian sisters and brothers and supporting them against the atrocities that they are currently experiencing is the least that I can do. May the Ukrainian people emerge from this stronger than ever!”

Additional culinary-based initiatives

are underway as well. Fan-Fan Doughnuts in Brooklyn posted that they will “Bake For Ukraine,” selling ponchiki, a type of Ukrainian doughnut, March 14 through March 20 with proceeds going towards a Ukrainian organization assisting children impacted by the ongoing war.

There’s also “Cook For Ukraine” with New York-based DACHA 46 joining forces with Alissa Timoshkina, a Russian food creative in London, and Chef Olia Hercules, who has been especially outspoken throughout the invasion. The Ukrainian cookbook author has family in the country, including her parents and a brother who recently joined the territorial defense in Kyiv.

Kratochvila says she’s overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response from bakers across Europe and the United States who are jumping in, donating their time and energy for this fundraiser.

“I know it’s not going to stop Putin,” she says. “But hopefully, it will help some people who are in a very desperate situation.”

Bakeries, cafés, and home bakers who wish to join the effort can contact Hamantashen For Ukraine at www.hamantashenforukraine.com This article originally appeared on The Nosher.

IT’S A WRAP 29th Annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film: It’s A Wrap Hunter Thomas

T

he Virginia Festival of Jewish Film presented by Alma and Howard Laderberg, wrapped up its 29th year on Monday, February 28 with a screening of Hester Street, restored in 4K for its 40th anniversary, and presented at Naro Expanded Cinema in honor of longtime Festival contributor Mal Vincent. Temple Israel’s Rabbi Michael Panitz spoke before the film to provide some contextual information regarding the film and the era it Rabbi Michael Panitz discusses Hester Street portrays. prior to a screening of the film at Naro Expanded The Festival began in January with Cinema. a virtual presentation of the film Tiger Within. Hybrid viewings of the remaining which presented previously unseen footfour films, along with in-person screenage from a 1968 interview with Israel’s ings began on Thursday, February 24, first prime minister. Perlov spoke with with the Italian film, A Starry Sky Above Laura Gross, president, United Jewish the Roman Ghetto. In addition to Rabbi Federation of Tidewater, following the Panitz, speakers at this year’s Festival film. She also shared a photo from an included Judi Beecher and Yael Perlov. upcoming project, The Paritizan with the Beecher, who executive produced and Leica. starred in the Festival’s Big Saturday Night Celebration screening of Tango Shalom on To learn about UJFT and Simon Family JCC’s February 26, discussed her career and arts programming while waiting for the 40th experience with Festival co-chair, Anne annual Virginia Festival of Jewish Film next Fleder. “I’ve never had the opportunity year, visit www.JewishVA.org/arts-ideas. to watch a film with one of the leading Hunter Thomas is director of Arts & Ideas ladies sitting next to me,” says Fleder. “For at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. me, being able to interview and get inside He may be reached at HThomas@UJFT.org. the mind of Judi was an experience that I Photography by Mark Robbins hope was just as engaging for the audience as it was for me—especially when she rose from her chair to sing her new song Paris, Oh La La! Perlov, who comes from a famous filmmaking family in Israel, edited and produced BenYael Perlov (right), producer and editor of Ben Gurion, Epilogue, discusses an Gurion, Epilogue, upcoming project, The Paritizan with the Leica, with Laura Gross, UJFT president.

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