Dear Readers,
At Shabbat services following the tragic deaths of six Israeli hostages, Rabbi Ryan Bauer of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco noted, “It has been a very dark time. . . It feels like a darker week among many dark weeks.” No one needed an explanation for his words.
Perhaps these dark and challenging times that Rabbi Bauer spoke of provide even more reason for us to seek spiritual light when we gather for the approaching Jewish New Year. Fortunately, Tidewater’s congregations offer lots of opportunities to meet, pray, and eat as a community during the High Holiday season. A listing of service times and contact information is on page 24.
Speaking of congregations, Jewish News asked area congregational leaders about their hopes for the holiday. Their responses begin on the following page.
What’s a High Holiday section without a recipe? Not much, so on page 22 we offer a Sephardic take on honey cake.
As we move toward Rosh Hashanah and the Jewish New Year of 5785, all of us at Jewish News wish you a happy holiday season filled with good health, peace, love, hope, and light.
L’Shana Tova!
Terri Denison Editor
Rosh Hashanah
At Rosh Hashanah, hoping for peace, kindness, unity and health in 5785
Stephanie Peck
In the spirit of renewal and freedom during this High Holiday season, Jewish News asked congregants and lay leadership from area synagogues: What are your hopes for 5785?
Rabbi Gershon Litt
[ B’nai Israel ]
On behalf of B’nai Israel Congregation, I would like to wish our entire Jewish community a year of meaning and growth. May our Jewish world come together in prayer and unity and may this year bring peace and strength to our brothers and sisters in the land of Israel.
First, I hope for the open revelation of Moshiach, and the world to see open G-dliness. Being short of that, I want Israel to receive the respect and fair treatment from the rest of the world. I hope Jews everywhere can reconnect with their roots and pride. I hope our country can mend the differences that we are going through and be stronger together.
Bruce Sherman [ Chabad ]
Susan and Bob Werby [ Jewish Virginia Beach ]
Our hope for the year 5785 is that all Jews throughout the country can put aside any differences and come together in support of each other and the state of Israel. We would like to see a united voice against antisemitism on our college campuses.
Rosh Hashanah
My wishes for the New Year:
For Israel, I hope and pray for safety and security and for the reuniting of all the hostages with their families.
For the world, I wish for a return to civility and for the strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.
For the Jewish community, renewed hope, strength, and courage found in community.
Norman Soroko [ Temple Israel ]
Recently, while scrolling not through Torah but Facebook, I did a quick analysis of greetings and commentary for Rosh Hashanah to see if I could get a handle on why the High Holidays are important to so many of us. My scrolling brought a wonderful mash-up of honey, apples, and wishes for a sweet and healthy year. My wish for 5785 is that we find complete peace in Israel and the neighboring countries and that no more bloodshed occurs, and our hostages are returned to their families alive.
What do I hope for in the new year of 5785?
The answer is quite simple – health and happiness to everyone that I love. But on a more personal level, I hope that I can be a better friend, travel more, get more organized, read more, have fun learning new and exciting things, become more involved in our Jewish community, etc.
Most importantly, however, I hope to continue to be able to be a positive influence in the Jewish lives of my children and grandchildren.
It is no secret that all our synagogues are facing new and challenging times. In my synagogue life, it is my hope that I will be able to help lead our congregation into its best future.
May your year be filled with sweetness, peace, light, joy and, most of all, love.
Sharon Nusbaum [ Ohef Sholom Temple ]
Rona Proser [ KBH ]
Rosh Hashanah
Herm Shelanski
[ Congregation Beth El ]
As we enter the new year, let us embrace the opportunity to deepen our connection to our values and heritage. Each act of kindness, no matter how small, reflects our commitment to a better world. By dedicating ourselves to good deeds, we fight the darkness of hate and uplift those around us, creating a ripple effect of positivity and hope. Together, let’s make this year a testament to the power of compassion and the strength of our shared Judaism.
Shana
Tovah
Lawrence Weinstein [ Temple Emanuel ]
Carol and I hope that 5785 will be a happy, healthy, and prosperous year, with diminished worldwide and campus antisemitism. And maybe even with our first grandchild.
Please join Temple Israel for the 2019/5780 holidays!
Please join Temple Israelforthe 2019/5780 holidays!
Celebrate the fullness ofJewish worship with us as togetherwe find spiritual meaning in the words of our sages. Youwill finda heartygreetingfroma warm congregationthatembracesboththetimelessandtheinnovative. Come join us and let us welcome you home.
Please join Temple Israel for the 2024/5785 holidays! Celebrate the fullness of Jewish worship with us as together we find spiritual meaning in the words of our sages. You will find a hearty greeting from a warm congregation that embraces both the timeless and the innovative. Come join us and let us welcome you home.
Celebrate the fullness ofJewish worship with us as togetherwe find spiritual meaning in the words of our sages. Youwill finda heartygreetingfroma warm congregationthatembracesboththetimelessandtheinnovative. Come join us and let us welcome you home.
7255 Granby Street, Norfolk, VA 23505 757-489-4550 www.templeisraelva.org
7255 Granby Street, Norfolk, VA 23505 757-489-4550 www.templeisraelva.org
WHY I’M HOSTING MY FIRST IRAQI ROSH HASHANAH SEDER
Sarina Shohet
This story originally appeared on Hey Alma. Growing up, Rosh Hashanah was a benign holiday for me. Apples and honey, food and family. That is, until my brother was diagnosed with cancer the summer before my senior year of high school.
During the first week back at school that year, I was asked to deliver a d’var Torah on Rosh Hashanah. I wracked my brain trying to remember the heroes and villains of the Rosh Hashanah story, and eventually had to check out a library book to learn more. To my surprise, I found that Rosh Hashanah isn’t a holiday commemorating any event in Jewish history. It’s a life cycle holiday. It’s about us and our lives, today. It’s about life, and by extension, death. The blast of the shofar is a daily alarm to wake us up from passivity in our lives, we listen to the Unetaneh Tokef in synagogue to remind us of our mortality, and we eat round challah to symbolize the circularity of life. The whole point of Rosh Hashanah, I learned, is to inspire us to live meaningfully by reminding us that we are alive, and that we won’t always be.
Eight years have passed since I gave a speech to my
high school comparing a shofar blast to a cancer diagnosis. Two years have passed since I last saw my brother. He died a month after his 25th birthday.
As a newly minted 25-year-old myself, I am more aware of my mortality right now than ever, and as Rosh Hashanah creeps up this year, I feel like shouting, “I KNOW.” I don’t need to hear the shofar. I don’t want to eat the challah. I don’t need the reminder. I am living Rosh Hashanah every day.
In learning to live with grief, I’ve found comfort in talking with friends and relatives who have faced similar loss. In particular, I thought my grandma and I might be able to connect about our grief, since she lost her older sister to cancer when she was about my age. For three years, we’ve gotten close as we spent countless hours together to create a cookbook filled with recipes and
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memories from her ancestral Iraq. I knew that her sister had died, but until I lost my own sibling, I never thought to ask her what that felt like.
My grandma was 17 years old in 1963, when she finally had enough with an Iraq that most Jews had already deserted. Her family wouldn’t let her leave without a husband, and they weren’t ready to go themselves, stubbornly refusing to relinquish their roots in the country. My grandmother hastily promised herself to my grandfather and made it onto the last legal flight to ever take a Jew out of Iraq. My dad was born, American, one year later. My grandma was a mother of three by the time she was 23, and when her sister died a couple years later, she took in her nieces. My grandma was a mother of five before she was 30. When I finally asked what her grief felt like, she
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shrugged off my question. At first, I interpreted her shortness as avoidance; my grandma understandably brushes off a lot of questions about those hard years. But the more I think about the weight on her shoulders as a teenage immigrant with five mouths to feed and no family to support her, I wonder — between financial stress, keeping food on the table, school pick-ups and drop offs — did she even have the time to think about her dead sister? To feel her loss?
As a woman in a society that encourages my independence, in which I have never experienced life altering antisemitism and in which my family is free to be together, I have more privilege in grieving my sibling than my grandma ever had. I can sit and cry for hours, and I do. I can tell the people that depend on me — my coworkers
and friends — that I need to take a sick day for my mental health, and I do. My grandma and I both lost siblings, but our experiences of loss have been completely different because of our circumstances.
Though my grandma hasn’t, and maybe can’t, relate with me over loss, she does let me into her world through food. This Rosh Hashanah, I am hosting my own traditional Iraqi seder for the first time and I’ll be using her recipes to represent the holiday’s signature reminders of life’s sweetness and death’s inevitability. For sweetness, I’ll be making the Iraqi version of apples and honey, which are more of an apple preserve. And for the mortality reminder, I’ll have tongue* on my table in addition to the more commonly known fish head. Sharing recipes for this holiday may be the closest we ever get to talking about our grief.
By hosting my own seder, I am stepping through the kitchen and into my history at a time when the circularity of life feels so potent, the curtain separating the worlds of the dead and the living so thin, both in my personal life and on the Jewish calendar.
Rosh Hashanah will always be meaningful for me now; it has connected me to my grief, and through cooking Iraqi recipes, it has connected me to my grandmother’s too. There’s something awfully circular about these generations of layered loss. As reluctant as I am to eat the round challah this year, I understand more profoundly than ever why we do it.
*I feel much less comfortable cooking meat than my grandma does, so my Rosh Hashanah table will feature candy tongue, instead of its real cow counterpart.
Chris Sisler, Vice President, Member of Ohef Sholom Temple, Board member of the Berger-Goldrich Home at Beth Sholom Village, James E. Altmeyer, Jr., President, James E. Altmeyer, Sr., Owner
Tishpishti is Sephardi honey cake, but better Rosh Hashanah
Susan Barocas
This story originally appeared on The Nosher.
Honey cake is a hallmark of Rosh Hashanah and the fall Jewish holidays — Ashkenazi honey cake, that is. But did you know there’s a Sephardi cake traditionally served for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur Break Fast and during Sukkot? Like its Eastern European counterpart, tishpishti symbolizes wishes for a sweet new year and the fullness of life. The cake is also popular for Purim and adapted for Passover.
Semolina pastries and puddings have been made for centuries throughout the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Middle East. Tishpishti is traditionally made with fine semolina and soaked in a sweet syrup of sugar, honey, or a mixture, but beyond these common elements, there are many variations in both the way
tishpishti is made — such as nuts or no nuts, eggs or no eggs, flavored with lemon, orange, or rose water — and even what it’s called according to different geographic and cultural roots. For example, in Egypt, it’s basboosah or baboussa, namora or namoura in Syria and shamali in Crete.
Tishpishti is perhaps the name most used and, as we know it today, the cake originated in Turkey. In the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, Gil Marks explains that in Israel and for Jews from once-Ottoman Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans, the name is probably a nonsense name from the Turkish “tez” (fast/quick) and “pisti” (plane/slope). Put together, it means “quickly done.” In Ladino it might also be called pispiti, tupishti, and revani, which Joyce Goldstein in Sephardic Flavors: Jewish Cooking of the Mediterranean notes is named after a 16th century Turkish poet “who wrote about the
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Many tishpishti recipes use eggs, including ones that instruct whipping the whites separate from the yolks, a Sephardi contribution to tishpishti. This recipe, however, is based on a very old traditional way of making cakes from a thick dough without eggs. My concession to modernity is adding baking powder and soda, both 19th century products, to lessen the density of the cake. Using ground almonds instead of walnuts will result in a lighter colored cake, which is traditional at Rosh Hashanah to symbolize a bright new year. Tishpishti is delicious on its own or served with a spoonful of yogurt, labneh, or whipped cream and a cup of mint tea or strong Turkish coffee.
Notes
• It is best to make the syrup ahead of time so it has time to cool, although one can choose to make it while the cake bakes, then refrigerate it to cool more quickly.
• Tishpishti is best when left at room temperature for several hours or overnight so the syrup penetrates the cake.
• Store wrapped at room temperature for two days or a week in the refrigerator. The cake can be well-wrapped and
frozen for two months. Defrost and then refresh with some drizzles of warm syrup.
Ingredients
For the syrup:
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup honey
¾ cup water
1–2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice or orange blossom water
For the cake:
1 cup fine semolina (not semolina flour)
2 cups all-purpose or one-to-one glutenfree flour or almond flour
1½ cups finely ground walnut or almond meal (not flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup good neutral vegetable oil (such as avocado, sunflower or peanut)
2 cups water
½ cup honey
½ cup sugar
2 tsp finely grated lemon or orange zest or a combination
1/8 tsp salt
about 30 slices blanched almonds, whole almonds or walnuts, or chopped almonds or walnuts
Rosh Hashanah
Instructions:
To make the syrup, begin by stirring the sugar, honey, water, and lemon juice (if using) together in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stop stirring, turn the heat up to mediumhigh until the mixture begins to boil, then reduce heat to a gentle boil. Cook about 15 minutes until the mixture thickens but is still syrupy. Remove from the heat and, if using orange blossom water, stir it in now. Let the syrup cool to room temperature while the cake bakes.
To make the cake, preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together the semolina, flour, nuts, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon until well blended. Set aside.
In a large saucepan, mix the oil, water, honey, sugar, cinnamon, zest, and salt. Heat over medium, stirring often. Remove the saucepan from the heat just as it begins to boil. Using a wooden
High Holiday Schedules 5785 Rosh Hashanah
Jewish News has compiled a list of High Holiday services taking place at local synagogues for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Contact synagogues for information about babysitting, live-stream, and Zoom services.
B’nai Israel Congregation www.bnaiisrael.org
757-627-7358
Contact the synagogue for the High Holiday schedule.
Chabad of Tidewater www.chabadoftidewater.com
757-616-0770
Motzei Shabbos
Saturday, September 28
Selichos: 1 am
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
Shachris & Hatoras Nedarim: 7 am
Candle lighting: 6:28 pm
Mincha followed by Rosh Hashanah evening service/Mariv: 6:40 pm
Community Rosh Hashanah dinner: 8:15 pm
Rosh Hashanah
Thursday, October 3
Shachris: 10 am
Shofar: 11:45 am
Kiddush/Lunch: 2 pm
Mincha followed by Tashlich: 5 pm
Mariv: 7:25 pm
Friday, October 4
Shachris: 10 am
Shofar: 11:45 am
Kiddush/lunch: 1:45 pm
Light Shabbat candles: 6:25 pm
Mincha followed by Mariv: 6:30 pm
Shabbos
Saturday, October 5
Mysticism class: 9:15 am
Shachris: 10 am
Kiddush lunch: 12:30 pm
Mincha: 1:50 pm
Sicha class: 6 pm
Erev Kom Kippur
Friday, October 11
Shachris: 8 am
Mincha: 3 pm
Light candles: 6:15 pm
Kol Nidrei service: 6:25 pm
Fast begins: 6:29 pm
Yom Kippur
Saturday, October 12
Shachris: 10 am
Mincha & Neilah: 5 pm
Yom Kippur/Shabbat ends: 7:10 pm
Congregation Beth Chaverim temple.office@bethchaverim.com
Services will be broadcast on Zoom, contact the office for link and password.
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
Services: 7 pm, Tucker Hall at Old Donation Episcopal Church (ODEC)
4449 N. Witchduck Road, Virginia Beach
Rosh Hashanah, First Day
Thursday, October 3
Services: 10:30 am, Tucker Hall at ODEC
Tashlich at the beach with Temple Emanuel
Evening services: 6:30 pm at Temple Emanuel
Rosh Hashanah dinner at Temple Emanuel (RSVP required): 7 pm
Shabbat Shuvah
Friday, October 4
Services: 7 pm at Temple Emanuel
Erev Yom Kippur
Friday, October 11
Kol Nidre Service: 7 pm in the Great Hall at Old Donation Episcopal Church (ODEC)
Yom Kippur
Saturday, October 12
Services: 10:30 am in the Great Hall at ODEC
Discussion with Rabbi Susan Rheins: 3 pm in the Great Hall at ODEC
Yom Kippur Afternoon Service followed by Yiskor Memorial Service and concluding services: 4:15 pm in the Great Hall at ODEC
Sisterhood Break Fast following the concluding service in Tucker Hall at ODEC
Congregation Beth El www.bethelnorfolk.com
757-625-7821
Selichot
Saturday, September 28
Havdalah and movie: The Quarrel: 8 pm at Temple Israel
Services: 10 pm
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
*Services: 6:30 pm
Rosh Hashanah, First Day
Thursday, October 3
*Shacharit: 8:30 am
Children's programming (4 years old & K-7): 10:30 am
Lunch for children: 12:30 pm
Tashlich at the Hague: 5 pm
*Mincha Maariv: 6:30 pm
Rosh Hashanah, Second Day Friday, October 4
*Shacharit: 8:30 am
Children's programming (4 years old & K-7): 10:30 am
*Mincha Maariv (Kabbalat Shabbat): 6:30 pm
Erev Yom Kippur
Friday, October 11
*Processional: 5:45 pm
*Kol Nidre: 6 pm
Yom Kippur
Saturday, October 12
*Congregational Service: 9 am
Children's programming (4 years old & K-7): 10:30 am
*Yizkor: 11:30 am
Break: 2:30 pm
*Mincha: 4:30 pm
*Neilah: 5:45 pm
*Havdalah: 7:15 pm
*Final Shofar: 7:20 pm
Break Fast in Myers Hall (RSVPs required): 7:25 pm
*in the sanctuary with livestream
Jewish Virginia Beach www.jewishvb.org
757-938-0625
Contact the synagogue for the High Holiday schedule.
Kehillat Bet Hamidrash
Kempsville Conservative Synagogue www.kbhsynagogue.org
757-495-8510
Selichot
Saturday, September 28
Havdalah and movie: The Quarrel, 8 pm at Temple Israel Services: 10 pm
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
Candle lighting: 6:28 pm
Ma’ariv: 6:30 pm
Rosh Hashanah, First Day
Thursday, October 3
Services: 9:30 am
Meet to walk to Tashlich: 6:45 pm
Mincha and Ma’ariv follow at KBH
Rosh Hashanah, Second Day
Friday, October 4
Services: 9:30 am
Shabbat Shuvah
Saturday, October 5
Services: 10 am
Erev Yom Kippur
Friday, October 11
Candle lighting: 6:15 pm
Kol Nidre: 6:20 pm
Yom Kippur
Saturday, October 12
Services: 9:30 am
Mincha, Ma’ariv and Neilah: 5:30 pm
Yom Kippur ends followed by Break Fast: 7:10 pm
Ohef Sholom Temple
www.ohefsholom.org
757-625-4295
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
Services: 7 pm
Rosh Hashanah, First Day
Thursday, October 3
Family service: 9 am
Services: 10:30 am
Rosh Hashanah, Second Day
Friday, October 4
Teshuvah Speaker Julia Wallace: 6:30 pm
Erev Yom Kippur
Friday, October 11
Kol Nidre: 7 pm
Yom Kippur
Saturday, October 12
Family service: 9 am
Services: 10:30 am
Study Session 1: David Metzger - Make Your Souls Responsive! Hasidic Wisdom for the High Holy Days: 12:45 pm (in person and Zoom)
Private meditation before the Sanctuary Ark: 1:45 pm
Study Session 2: Kathryn Morton - Sulam to Shalom: The Ladder from Antiquity to Today: Climbing the Rungs of Yom Kippur: 1:50 pm (in person and Zoom)
Afternoon service: Jay Lazier chants from the book of Jonah and Alyssa Muhlendorf will deliver the D’var Haftarah on Jonah: 3 pm
Musical interlude: 4 pm
Memorial and concluding services: 4:15 pm
Break Fast: 5:45 pm
Temple Emanuel www.tevb.org
757-428-2591
High Holiday services and family programming will be in-person and on Zoom. Services on Zoom via High Holiday Hub: www.tevb.org/hhd.
Some services require passwords.
Selichot
Saturday, September 28
Havdalah and movie: The Quarrel, 8 pm at Temple Israel Services: 10 pm
Rosh Hashanah
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
Services: 6:30 pm
Rosh Hashanah, First Day
Thursday, October 3
Services: 9 am
Family Service: 10 am
Taschlich at the Beach following Shacharit service
Evening services: 6:30 pm
Rosh Hashanah dinner (RSVP required): 7 pm
Rosh Hashanah, Second Day
Friday, October 4
Services: 9 am
Kabbalat Shabbat: 7 pm
Shabbat T’Shuva Services: 10 am
Erev Yom Kippur
Friday, October 11
Kol Nidre: 6 pm
Yom Kippur
Saturday, October 12
Services: 9 am
Family Service: 10 am
Erev Yom Kippur
Friday, October 11
Minchah: 1 pm on Zoom
Kol Nidre: 6:30 pm
Yom Kippur
Saturday, October 12
Services: 9 am
Ne’ilah: 5 pm
Break Fast: 7 pm
Temple Lev Tikvah jzobe@aol.com
757-617-0334, 757-937-8393
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
Services: 7:30 pm
Rosh Hashanah, First Day
Thursday, October 3
Services: 10:30 am
Erev Yom Kippur
Friday, October 11
Kol Nidrei: 7:30 pm
Torah Service and Yizkor: 10:30 am
Mincha and Neilah: 5:30 pm
Fast Ends, Break Fast to follow (RSVP required): 7:13 pm
Temple Israel www.templeisraelva.org
757-489-4550
Selichot
Saturday, September 28
Havdalah and movie: The Quarrel, 8 pm
Services: 10 pm
Erev Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, October 2
Services: 5:30 pm
Rosh Hashanah, First Day
Thursday, October 3
Services: 9:15 am
Tashlich at the home of Nancy Tucker: 5 pm
Services: 7 pm on Zoom
Rosh Hashanah, Second Day
Friday, October 4
Services: 9:15 am
Evening services: 5:30 pm on Zoom
We wish you and your family a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!
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