Norfolk —Mel Sifen of Virginia Beach, passed away peacefully in his home at the age of 90, surrounded by his loving family, on Tuesday, May 16, 2017.

He was born on January 18, 1927, in Suffolk, Va. He grew up in Franklin, Va., and graduated from Franklin High School. On June 5, 1949, he married Yetta Cohen, and together they had five sons, Larry (Pam), David, Michael (Becky), Marc (Wendy) and Barry (Elizabeth). In addition, Mel and Yetta were blessed with 10 grandchildren ( Joey, Lena, Philip, Joe, Rachael, Mamie, Jeremiah, Ben, Jeff and Harold) and one great grandson (Leo).

Mel was very proud of having served in the Merchant Marines during WWII . He was awarded several medals for his meritorious service. After his honorable discharge from the service, Mel worked with his family in their business before opening his own retail business. He also developed and managed his own commercial properties in Norfolk. After his retirement, Mel became a gourmet chef for his family and enjoyed traveling and cheering for his favorite sports teams, the Miami Dolphins and the Miami Heat.

Mel will always be remembered for the love he showed for his family and friends and his great sense of humor. Mel will be deeply missed by his wife, children, grandchildren, great-grandson, extended family and friends. He was predeceased by his parents, Mamie and Joe Sifen, his brother Paul Sifen and his sister Sylvia Mazur.

A graveside service was held at Gomley Chesed Cemetery. Memorial donations in honor of Mel Sifen may be made to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22478 Oklahoma City, Ok., the Chabad of Tidewater, 1920 Colley Ave., Norfolk, Virginia 23517 or to Medi Home Health and Hospice, 530 Independence Parkway, Chesapeake, VA. 23320. H.D. Oliver Funeral Apartments. Online condolences may be shared with the family at www.hdoliver.com.

Shulamit “Shula” Cohen-Kishik, a a spy for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency who worked undercover in Lebanon for 14 years, has died at 100.

Cohen-Kishik, who was codenamed “The Pearl,” died Sunday, May 21 at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The Buenos Aires, Argentina, native was raised by Zionist parents who moved the family to prestate Israel. She married Joseph Kishik, a wealthy Jewish-Lebanese businessman from Beirut, when she was 16 and the couple settled in Lebanon.

At 27, she began working for the Mossad, spending the next decade and a half helping to bring persecuted Jews from Arab countries to Israel and gathering intelligence information about Arab military activities—information she was able to collect by getting herself accepted into Lebanon’s high society.

She was caught smuggling in 1952 and taken to jail just three weeks after giving birth, where she spent 36 days in confinement. Cohen-Kishik continued her clandestine activities for another nine years before things became too dangerous and she moved to Rome for three months.

Upon her return to Lebanon in 1961, she was arrested immediately for espionage. While in prison during the trial she was brutally tortured. Sentenced to death by hanging, the verdict was reduced to 20 years of hard labor because she was a mother of seven.

In 1967, Cohen-Kishik was released in a secret prisoner exchange following the Six-Day War. She then immigrated with her family to Jerusalem, where she spent the rest of her life.

Cohen-Kishik was chosen to light a torch for Israel’s Independence Day ceremony in 2007.

“I never worked for a prize or for glory,” she said. “I did what I did because I wanted to, because I loved the country and I wanted to help its establishment.”

A video made in 2011 by her grandson tells her history, and includes photos of Cohen-Kishik as a baby in Buenos Aires, in Lebanon and with her own testimony, and also singing an Argentinean tango song A Su Memoria, or To His Memory.

Her son Itzhak Levanon was Israel’s ambassador to Egypt from 2009 to 2011.

She is survived by her seven children, and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. (JTA)

About two decades ago, a bat mitzvah student asked me a familiar question, but with a surprising twist. She said, “Rabbi, is God a He?” And I answered, “No, He’s not.” Then we both thought for two seconds about what I had just said, and simultaneously, we burst out laughing. My student had just learned about the inadequacy of finite language to describe the infinite.

We are coming up on Father’s Day. Human fathers are not identical to human mothers. Both are potentially blessings in the life of their children, but not as clones of each other. But what does it mean to call God “Avinu She-bashamayim,” “Our Heavenly Father”?

When I was a student, the 1970s–1980s encounter of North American feminism and Judaism was producing many fruitful results, and also, of course, lots of controversy. I recall many earnest discussions about the masculine gender of God references being a relic of oppressive patriarchy. We would teach our daughters, and, just as important, our sons, as well, to claim God as a loving parent, not to perpetuate the disrespect to women of depicting God as masculine.

I still believe that. But now, a third of a century later, I would urge us to glean another lesson as well, the lesson that my bat mitzvah student of the late 1990s understood intuitively: to have more humility about all our God-language.

In truth, none of our options are perfect. If we retain the traditional, “God as Father” language, for the sake of continuity with the poetic choices of our ancestors, we are back at the starting point of the problems that we tried to solve two generations ago. We could alternate “Father” and “Mother”, and some of our liturgists do just that, but again, we need to supplement the words with explanations that we are being deliberately inconsistent, to make a theological point—so the alternation does not itself provide an elegant solution. We could substitute “Parent” for both “Father” and “Mother,” but in today’s English, “parent” sounds impersonal, which makes it still harder to inculcate the sense of God’s love that is already sadly underdeveloped in much of our teaching about God. We could eschew the metaphor, and refer to God in second person, but again, by avoiding the metaphor, we dampen our ability to feel the sense of intimacy in the Father-language of our sacred texts:

Just as a Father is tender with his children
So is the LORD compassionate to the God-reverencing… (Psalm 103:13)

My suggestion is that we become comfortable with telling our children, in the most positive ways, that “God is greater than everything”, and go on to say that “God is greater than our language for God.”

After all, that’s precisely what the kaddish prayer says!

“The Name of the Holy Blessed One…
[is]
Above all the blessings and songs, the praises and declarations of consolations that we can say…

This is an issue with which it is good to wrestle. Better that, than to grow too comfortable with the thought that God is no greater than our imperfect and sometimes bigoted imaginings.

—Rabbi Michael Panitz, Temple Israel

Rabbi Israel Zoberman with Martin Culqreth, Special Agent in Charge, of the FBI’s Norfolk field office. Rabbi Zoberman addressed the Hampton Roads FBI community on the historical Jewish experience.

Mr. and Mrs. David Balaban of Virginia Beach on the engagement of their son, Jody Michael Balaban to Erin Ashley McGrattan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel T. McGrattan Jr., also of Virginia Beach.

Ms. McGrattan, a graduate of Bishop Sullivan Catholic High and Longwood University, is a loan officer at Tidewater Mortgage Services Inc. Mr. Balaban graduated from Norfolk Collegiate and the University of Alabama. He is an investment advisor representative with Frieden Wealth Management.

A June 2018 wedding is planned.

Norfolk —Robert Eugene Brown 79, died on May 20, 2017, at his home, in the care of family, friends, and home hospice. The cause was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Bob Brown was a principled, analytic, and deeply loving man who had a passion for the law, his chosen profession, which he practiced with skill and integrity in Norfolk for over 50 years. He was an energetic and active citizen who believed in and worked to improve social justice and fairness in society. He was a lover and supporter of the arts, particularly the theater. Bob was the founding president of the Virginia Stage Company at the Wells Theater in Norfolk.

Bob loved to travel, first crossing the Atlantic on a tramp steamer and hitchhiking from Denmark to Madrid at age 20, followed by trips made over the years to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Central and South America with his beloved wife, Roslyn, as well as with family and friends.

Bob was a family man. He adored his wife Roslyn and tenderly cared for her in her final illness until she died on May 24, 2015, their 34th wedding anniversary. More than anything, he loved his daughter Emily and Roslyn’s sons, David and Adam and their families, and was grateful for their joyous family gatherings over the years, and their loving support during his recent illness.

Bob was born on May 6, 1938, the fourth and youngest child of Ivey and Lillie Brown. When Bob was three, the family moved to Norfolk as his father responded to a call for workers to support the war effort, and Bob spent a happy childhood on Craney Island and in Churchland, Portsmouth. During his years at Churchland High School, Bob discovered interests that would persist throughout his life. His natural curiosity, intelligence, and zest for learning were supported by his teachers, who taught him to write and speak well, and encouraged him to go to college. During that time, Bob also became active in scouting, instilling in him the value of “cheerful service,” which became one of his lifelong principles of living.

The first of his family to attend college, Bob was accepted to the University of Virginia as a Dupont Scholar and spent four years pursuing a variety of academic and extracurricular interests. He described the Honors Program as a great incubator for honing writing, critical thinking, and analysis skills. While at UVa, Bob was elected to the Student Council, served on the editorial advisory board of the Cavalier Daily, was president of the University of Virginia Magazine, served as an officer of the Jefferson Literary Society, was tapped into honorary forensic and journalism societies, and was active throughout in the Navy ROTC. He credited his three years as a member and officer of the intercollegiate UVa debating team with his later decision to become a lawyer. In June 1960, Bob graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Arts with Honors and a major in Economics.

After graduation, Bob served for two years in the United States Navy. Assigned the first year to the Naval Air Station, Kodiak, Alaska, Bob was delighted to find himself in charge of public information and education for the base, and one of his responsibilities was publishing the base newspaper. In his second year in the Navy in 1961–62, Bob served as Special Projects and Information Officer of the Joint United Nations Command/U.S. Forces Korea.

Bob returned to Charlottesville to attend UVa School of Law after completing his military service. He worked on the Virginia Law Review and the Virginia Legal Research Group. Graduating from University of Virginia Law School in June 1965, Bob returned to Norfolk to take up the practice of law with the firm of Kanter, Kanter and Sachs. While practicing law, Bob volunteered in politics, and when local lawyer Henry Howell decided to run for governor of Virginia, he asked Bob to be his statewide campaign manager. Howell did not win, but he hired Bob to join his law firm. Bob became a partner a few years later in the Howell, Daugherty, Brown and Lawrence firm. Bob’s illustrious career as a trial lawyer for plaintiffs combined his extraordinary analytic skills with his sense of social justice. No matter the scope of the case, Bob worked tirelessly for the benefit of his clients.

Bob’s commitment to law was equaled by his active civic engagement in the arts. He founded and published Sight and Sound, a lively monthly arts magazine. In 1974, Bob joined the Norfolk Theater Center and, as its visionary president, steered its transformation from an impoverished, semi-professional community theater group into a nationally recognized professional theater company, the Virginia Stage Company, with its own permanent home, the elegantly renovated Wells Theater, which opened in 1979. Between 1978 and 2011, Bob served as founding president board member, Advisory Council member, and Wells Restoration Capital Campaign co-chair. Upon his retirement from the board, then Mayor Paul Fraim issued a Proclamation recognizing Bob’s 32 years of service to the theater and the community.

Bob’s personal life was enriched by the people he loved, and he enriched theirs beyond measure. He wed Susan Byrd Greenbacker in 1969, and they had a daughter, Emily. Although Bob and Susan divorced, they remained lifelong friends. Bob was remarried in 1981 to Roslyn Gladstone Herman. They shared a keen intellect and love of music, the arts, civic engagement, travel, dance, and the law. Bob and Roslyn were gracious hosts, opening their home for community and cultural gatherings throughout their 34 years of marriage.

Bob is survived by his daughter, Emily Brown Phillips of Brooklyn, N.Y., and her husband Seth; his sons Dr. David L. Herman of Albany, N.Y., and his wife Jennifer Rosenbaum; his son Adam Herman of Nags Head, N.C., and his wife Jodie; his five grandchildren (Claire Phillips, Jackson Phillips, Owen Phillips, Zachary Herman, and Eric Herman); his brother George M. Brown of Virginia Beach; his brother Bill Brown of Culpeper and his wife Faye, and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. He was pre-deceased by his wife Roslyn Gladstone Brown and his sister Margaret Brown McCombs.

A memorial service was held at the Wells Theater.

Memorial donations to the Virginia Stage Company, PO Box 3770, Norfolk, VA 23514 (http://www.vastage.org); or to the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, P.O. Box 518, Onley, VA 23418. Online condolences at www.hdoliver.com.

Virginia Beach —Judi Blum Hathaway, 64, passed away on Tuesday, May 16, 2017 surrounded by her family.

Judi was born on October 6, 1952 to Cecil (deceased) and Irene Blum.

Left to cherish Judi’s memory are her daughter and son-in-law, Tamara and Zander Galloway; grandson, Dalton Galloway; her mother, Irene Blum; sisters, Sherry Lieberman and her husband Steve, Linda Green and her husband Ernie; Tamara’s dad, Keith Hathaway and his wife Karin; her nephew, Brian Lieberman; nieces, Lisa Thatch and her husband John, Jennifer Kebble and her husband Jim; her uncle and aunt, Sheldon and Gloria Blum and many beloved cousins and friends.

A memorial service was held at Cypress Point Country Club. Memorial donations may be made to Sentara Hospice House, 3760 Sentara Way, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

Virginia Beach – Frances Minkin, 82, passed away on June 2, 2017.

Originally from the Bronx, N.Y., she was the daughter of the later Isadore and Rose Rauchwerger and the widow of Charles Minkin.

She is survived by her daughter, Elynne Minkin and her son and daughter-in-law.

A beloved mother, wife, and friend, Frances worked primarily within the Jewish community, first for the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and later for many years at Congregation Beth El.

Frances’s family would like to extend their gratitude to the employees at the Terrace at Beth Sholom for the wonderful care she received during the two years she lived there. 

A graveside service was held in Forest Lawn Cemetary with Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz and Cantor Wendi Fried officiating.

Contributions may be made to the Beth Sholom Village, Congregation Beth El or CHKD. H. D. Oliver Funeral Apts. Online condolences may be made at www.hdoliver.com.

Virginia Beach – Joseph I. Reznick, 98, passed away on May 27, 2017.

He was born on January 23, 1919 in Columbia, S.C. to Louis Reznick and Esther Solomon Reznick.

He served as a Major in the United States Air Force during World War II. He spent most of his life in Winston Salem, N.C., and, with his wife Jeanne, owned and operated Reznick’s Music and Jewelry. Upon his retirement to Virginia Beach in 1993, he became an active member of the community, including serving as a volunteer for the Virginia Beach Public Library.

Joe Reznick was blessed with a loving and devoted family. He was preceded in death by his wife of 56 years, Jeanne Tavss Reznick, his sisters, Ida Fenigsohn and Frances Lefkowitz, as well as his son, J. Steven Reznick.

Survivors include his daughters, Celia Brown (Larry) and Barbara Bernstein (Keith), daughter-in-law, Donna Kaye; his grandchildren, Meredith and Ruthie Brown, Daniel, Ellis and Joycie Bernstein, and Leah Reznick Tyner (Jon), and Aaron Kaye; and his great grandson James Tyner. He is also survived by sisters-in-law, Evelyn Adler, Barbara Gross, Sandra Tavss and Ruth Tavss, and brother-in-law, Richard Tavss; nephew Larry Adler (Ronna); and many other nieces, nephews, and extended family members.

A graveside service was conducted at Forest Lawn Cemetery by Rabbi Rosalin Mandelberg. H.D. Oliver Funeral Apts.

Norfolk – Michael “Mickey” Stredler, 77, passed away peacefully at home on May 30, 2017.

Mickey was born in Philadelphia, Pa. He attended the University of Virginia from 1957 through 1960 and then the Medical College of Virginia, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 1964.

Mickey was the founder of Bayview Plaza Pharmacy, which served the Hampton Road community for 35 years. He was a strong advocate of independent pharmacies, believing they had more flexibility to care for their patients than big chain stores. He was in his pharmacy every morning at 5:30 am filling prescriptions for delivery. For many years, Bayview was one of the highest ranked independent pharmacies in the country. Bayview was the first to offer free home delivery all over Hampton Roads. Bayview stocked readily available medications for all patient needs, many of which most other pharmacies did not carry on a daily basis. If a patient needed a medication that was not in stock, he would make every effort to locate and deliver it the same day, even if it required going out of town to get it. He was once called upon by a school to obtain a medication needed for students who had potentially been exposed to a deadly contagious disease. During this crisis, he kept the pharmacy open through the early morning hours so that worried parents could obtain the necessary medicine for their children. He was also president of Professional Infusion Services, which has provided medical and dental care for the working poor. He served on The Virginia Board of Pharmacy for five years, and also received numerous accolades and awards. Being chosen as The Drug Topics Independent Superstar of 1990 was his proudest.

Mickey was preceded in death by his mother, Jessi Mitnick Stredler, and his father, Jules Stredler.

He is survived by Celest Stredler, his wife of 38 years. He was a proud and loving father of three children; Jeffrey Stredler (Laurie), Andrew Stredler, and, and Jennifer Sabatino (Steve). He was a caring stepfather to David Glanville (Lisa), Lora Saunders (David) and Charles Glanville. Mickey’s family included seven grandchildren; Megan and Payton Stredler, Nicholas, Madison and Abigal Sabatino, Carey and Hannah Stredler and four step-grandchildren Amy and Brian Saunders, Marena Glanville and Camryn Glanville. He is also survived by his sister, Patsy Barr (Burt).

A private family burial took place at Forest Lawn Cemetery and a public memorial service was held at Altmeyer Funeral Home.

The family would like to express sincere gratitude for the many visits, calls, and prayers for Mickey during his illness. The family would also like to thank Dr. Armistead Williams, the doctors and staff at Virginia Oncology, and the Freda Gordon Hospice and Palliative Care of Tidewater for all of their support. Memorial donations may be made to the Cancer Care Foundation of Tidewater.

New York (JTA) – Alan Mintz, a professor of Hebrew literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary and, as a student in the 1960s and 1970s, a leader of a movement of young Jews who sought to infuse organized Jewish life with the activist spirit of the era, has died.

The cause was a heart attack, which he suffered Saturday, May 20 after swimming at a gym near his home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He was 69.

As a member of the JTS faculty, which he joined in 2001, and before that at Brandeis University and the University of Maryland, Mintz focused on Hebrew literature in America, the Hebrew writer and Nobel laureate S. Y. Agnon and responses to the Holocaust and other historical tragedies in Hebrew literature and popular culture.

In appreciation for the online Judaic studies forum H-Judaic, chair Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis, described Mintz as “one of the preeminent scholars of Hebrew Literature of our time.”

In 1967, as a student at Columbia College, he was a founder of Response Magazine, which called itself “A Contemporary Jewish Review.” In the Fall 1968 issue, he chided the Jewish establishment, and his fellow Jewish students, for not speaking out against the war in Vietnam. He urged”good Jewish boys” like him to work within their synagogues and communal institutions and demand that they “no longer separate their personal morality and community ethics from larger political realities.”

In 1971, Mintz and Jim Sleeper co-edited an anthology of writings mostly drawn from Response called The New Jews” In an appreciation of the book written on its 40th anniversary, Brandeis professor Yehudah Mirsky described how Mintz and his fellow student activists “sought to give voice to a small cohort at once deeply alienated from organized Jewish life and deeply attached to Jewish history and culture.” Many of the young leaders of the movement went on to careers in Jewish academia and to lead the institutions they once derided.

Raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Mintz earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and his doctorate, at Columbia University, while also studying at JTS.

Mintz also was a co-founder of the New York Havurah, or fellowship, one of the earliest examples in a movement of independent congregations that eschewed typical synagogue hierarchies and promoted spirituality and social activism. In 1981, he co-founded Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History with David Roskies, a professor of Jewish literature at JTS.

Mintz’s many books include Popular Culture and the Shaping of Holocaust Memory in America (2001), Translating Israel: Contemporary Hebrew Literature and Its Reception in America (2001) and Reading Hebrew Literature (editor, 2002).

Mintz was a recipient of multiple awards for his scholarship and was recently made a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies.

In announcing his death, JTS wrote of Mintz: “A profoundly insightful writer, he expanded our understanding and appreciation of the Hebrew language, modern Hebrew literature, and the Jewish life they illuminate. He was an exceptional teacher, an esteemed colleague, and a good friend.”

Mintz is survived by his wife, Susanna, and their daughters, Amira and Avital.

Nikos Stavroulakis, an artist, scholar, and prominent activist promoting Jewish life and heritage in Greece, has died.

Stavroulakis died Friday, May 19 in Chania, on the island of Crete. He was in his mid-80s.

“The world of Greek Jewry owes Nikos so much,” Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, museum director of the Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum in New York, wrote in a post on Facebook. “He will be dearly missed.”

Born to a Jewish mother and a Greek Orthodox father from Crete, Stavroulakis was educated in England, the United States, and Israel. He co-founded the Jewish Museum in Athens in 1977 and served as its director until 1993. He then moved to Chania and became the driving force behind the restoration of the Etz Hayyim synagogue there.

Built as a church in the 15th century and converted into a synagogue in the 1600s, the synagogue stood ruined after World War II following the destruction fo the local Jewish community. The World Monuments Fund placed Etz Hayyim on its watch list of most endangered heritage sites in 1996, and Stavroulakis spearheaded the efforts to revive it.

After the synagogue was rededicated in 1999, it reopened as a “place of prayer, recollection, and reconciliation,” with an eclectic and pluralistic congregation that as Stavroulakis put it, “accommodates Jews of every variety of self-identity as well as non-Jews.”

Stavroulakis’ books included a guidebook to Jewish Greece, a history of Jews in Salonika and a Greek Jewish cookbook.

“He was a philosopher, museumologist, artist, writer, storyteller–and the finest chef in the Mediterranean region,” said Krystof Czyzewski, director of the Borderland Foundation in Poland. (JTA)

Friday, July 21, 5:15–6:15 pm
Ohef Sholom Temple

Experience inner peace, soul nourishment, and personal transformation through the vibration resonance of chanting texts and quartz and gemstone singing bowls. A brief teaching, chant practice, sound healing, and time for reflection will take place.

Based in Sydney, Australia, Toni Whitmont is an accredited crystal sound therapist who uses her deep connection to Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah and her beautiful singing bowls to support both spiritual practice and personal and planetary healing.

“I have always loved to sing, particularly Jewish liturgical music, and to pray, so when Rabbi Shefa Gold announced the ninth cohort of her Kol Zimra Chanting program, I applied,” says Rabbi Rosalin Mandelberg, senior rabbi at Ohef Sholom Temple.

Rabbi Gold selects Biblical and liturgical verses and phrases that hold particular meaning for her and translates them into chants that serve as the basis of a Jewish spiritual practice. The program consists of four, week-long retreats in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during which time participants actually learn and engage in the art of chant and experience its power. Chanting has long been known to have healing properties, of body, mind and spirit.

“When I returned from my first five day retreat, I happened to have a regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment, and learned that my blood pressure had dropped by 30 points,” notes Mandelberg. “Half way through the program, after the second retreat, I started a monthly chanting group at Ohef Sholom that includes a brief teaching, a chanting practice, and time for reflection.”

RSVP is required by Wednesday, July 19 to reservations@ohefsholom.org.

Thursday, August 3, 6:30 pm

Hilarity is coming to the Simon Family JCC when comedian, writer, and actor Elon Gold performs at Laughter on the Lawn.

Gold, born in the Bronx and currently living and working in Los Angeles, is “a favoured son in the proud tradition of Jewish-American comedy” according to the Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival, where he has been a fixture for 11 years.

A well-known comedian in the Jewish community as well as on the comedy circuit, Gold currently has a special on Netflix, was recently featured in a recurring role on Bones, has performed on The Tonight Show, and was a guest star on Frasier, The Mentalist, and the Chappelle Show. He has also hosted the Chabad Telethon and performed at AIPAC.

Gold’s performance at the J marks the first time he will bring his sharp observations and manic wit to Tidewater.

Laughter on the Lawn is free to the community and will be held on the back lawn of the Simon Family JCC. Food and drinks will be available for purchase and an RSVP is required, due to limited seating.

Laughter on the Lawn is presented through the generosity of community crowdfunding. To support this event or RSVP, visit laughteronthelawn.gr8.com or call Erin Dougherty at 757-321-2326.

- Erin Dougherty

Sunday, Sept. 10 and Sunday, Sept. 17
Sandler Family Campus

A two-part program on intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews, Making Jewish Choices, presented by Tidewater Chavurah, will take place at the Reba and Sam Sandler Family Campus.

The first session will present a conversation between Reconstructionist Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill of Tidewater Chavurah and Conservative Rabbi Michael Panitz of Temple Israel. They will discuss some of the issues that affect intermarried couples, their children, and their extended families. During the conversation, the two rabbis will try to explain, and possibly dispel, some of the preconceptions intermarrying Jews and their parents often bring to the prospect or fact of intermarriage.

The following week’s session will feature a panel of individuals who are connected to the issue of Jewish-Gentile intermarriage either by their own experiences as part of an intermarried family or through their roles as Jewish professionals. Each session will offer ample time for audience members to ask questions.

Making Jewish Choices is made possible by a grant from the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and is presented with the assistance of Jewish Family Service.

Exact starting times and details about members of the Sept. 17 panel will be in future issues of Jewish News.

For more information, contact Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill at rabbicantorejg@gmail.com or 757-464-1950.

Brandon Terkeltaub and David Calliott on successfully passing the Certified Financial Planner™ exam and becoming CFP® practitioners. This certification is held by only 20% of financial advisors and takes over a year of preparation. These two young community leaders have met the rigorous experience and ethical requirements of the CFP board and have successfully completed financial planning coursework.

Terkeltaub graduated from ODU with a degree in economics and is a Financial Advisor with Frieden Wealth Management. He is active in the community through his involvement with the United Jewish Federation’s Young Adult Division, his UJFT finance committee membership, and as chair of Super Sunday. Terkeltaub is the son of Marcy and Paul Terkeltaub and the grandson of Kurt and Rose Rosenbach. He and his wife Callah live in Virginia Beach with their dog.

Calliott received his degree in Finance from Virginia Tech and is an Investment Executive with Calliott Demeter Harrell Investment & Wealth Advisors of Davenport & Company. He and his fiancée Alexandra are getting married in December and live in Virginia beach with their dog. Calliott is involved in the community through his role as a BBYO advisor, board member of the UJFT Young Adult Division, and his JCC basketball coaching. He is the son of Stephanie Adler Calliott and the grandson of Leonette and Beryl Adler.

Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Loiterman, Toras Chaim’s principal, was recenlty invited to become a member of Virginia’s Equitable Services Workgroup by Christopher Kelly, EdD. Kelly is the equitable services ombudsman in the Office of Program Administration and Accountability of the Virginia Department of Education.

The group meets three times a year to discuss equitable services and assist the state with developing effective practices under ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) programs serving private schools.

The ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) program implementation begins in the 2017-2018 school year.

Private school students, teachers, and principals in nonprofit private elementary and secondary schools, including religiously affiliated schools, are eligible under the same conditions as the federal program allows for public school students, teachers, and principals.

Loiterman will attend the next meeting of Virginia’s Equitable Services Workgroup on July 26 in Williamsburg.

Elizabeth Block Rosenberg on her graduation from Yale University’s graduate school of management with an MBA. Liz recently moved to Dallas to pursue her career. She is the daughter of Paul and Stefan Rosenberg and an alum of Kempsville High School and UVa.

Norfolk —Gerald Sanford Borman, 87, passed away on Thursday, June 8.

He was born on September 22, 1929 in Pittsburgh, Pa., to the late Samuel and Dora Borman. He was predeceased by his wife, Elsa, and survived by his brother, Yehoshua Bar-on, his three sons, Reuben, Benjamin, and Peretz, and grandchildren Rachael, Madison, and Samuel.

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Gerald attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, receiving a V.M.D. in 1956. After working for a year as a veterinarian, he obtained a master’s degree in Veterinary Science from the University of Wisconsin. He embarked on a career of research into animal-based viruses with applicability to human medical science, starting with a position at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where he contributed to research using animal models to evaluate the safety of polio vaccines. He was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in microbiology at Johns Hopkins University, followed by a series of research and teaching positions including assistant professor of Microbiology at the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry in Jersey City, N.J.; associate professor of biology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va; hospital veterinarian at the New England Hospital in Boston, Mass.; and assistant professor at the Tufts School of Medicine. In 1976, Dr. Borman joined the Eastern Virginia School of Medicine in Norfolk as assistant professor of Microbiology and veterinarian in charge of research animal facilities. His accomplishments included the design of a major expansion of those facilities. Dr. Borman retired from EVMS in 1991.

Dr. Borman was a devoted husband to his beloved wife of 56 years, Elsa, and virtually never left her side after she suffered a stroke. He was also a devoted and generous father. In his youth, Dr. Borman played the violin, and he passed along his love of classical music to his three sons. He also demonstrated by example the values of study, hard work, and dedication to career and family.

A graveside service took place at Forest Lawn Cemetery. H. D. Oliver Funeral Apts. Online condolences may be made at www.hdoliver.com.

Al Erlick, who retired as editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent in 1994 after 24 years with the newspaper, died May 24. He was 88.

His death was announced by the Exponent. Erlick had been living in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with his wife, Barbara.

As editor of one of the oldest and among the most decorated Jewish weekly newspapers, Erlick directed coverage of Philadelphia’s Jewish community, traveled to Russia to cover the Soviet Jewry movement and mentored a number of young journalists who went on to prominent careers in Jewish media.

He also taught journalism at Temple University, and after his retirement returned to the newsroom for a brief stint as acting editor of the Washington Jewish Week, according to the Exponent.

In an interview for the 1997 book, Making Local News, Erlick described the role of a Jewish community newspaper.

“Some claim bad news doesn’t belong in a Jewish newspaper, that the newspaper should be a purely cohesive device. I disagree,” he wrote. “Some people say Jewish newspapers shouldn’t be writing about the bad things Israel is doing, as the general press are, but I disagree.… The Intifada, the excesses of the Israeli military, some of the horrors, it’s our obligation to report these activities. But we also say—unlike the general press— that these activities were frowned upon by the government and punished.”

Friends and family also recalled Erlick as a storyteller, actor and raconteur whose first job was as a reporter for Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine. After moving to Florida, he took roles in musical productions at the Florida Children’s Theatre, where his daughter Janet Erlick is the executive artistic director.

“I think of him in stories,” Janet Erlick told the Exponent, “because he was such a brilliant storyteller. We grew up hearing stories about his adventures in the Army and his adventures in the movie business interviewing all of the celebrities of the day. He had stories about family and stories about his time traveling the world for the Exponent.” ( JTA)