JEWISH TIDEWATER
The Rosenblatt family tree roots itself in giving back Lisa Richmon
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n the 1950s and 60s, two Norfolk streets where Wexford Terrace turn into Colony Point, served as an enclave for Jewish business leaders and community builders raising families. Close to Wards Corner and the Norfolk Naval Base, the legacy location attracted many Jewish families who formed a tight-knit community tethered to the Jewish Community Center. Their offspring’s commitment to Jewish values today can be traced to what was absorbed in this small, but mighty Hebrew hotspot. Community engagement was high among most members of these families, and particularly active for a group of guys who left Ghent synagogues to fund and found Temple Israel on Granby Street. The Jewish Community Center followed when it moved to Newport Avenue in the mid-1960s. The slice of hamish heaven was home to Trudy and Sam Rosenblatt, and their three children: Judge Alan Rosenblatt, builder/developer Chuck Rosenblatt, and Judy Rosenblatt, an attorney in private practice. Rabbi Joseph Goldman led Temple Israel’s congregation for the first 30 years of its existence. Sam Rosenblatt was a founding member who also served as the third president. “Rabbi Goldman’s wife taught me to read. She was my kindergarten teacher.
Amy, Chuck, Nancy, and Barbara Rosenblatt.
I’m looking at the book she inscribed for my birthday. I remember memorizing Now We are Six word for word,” says Judy. There were times back then when being Jewish was hard, Judy recalls, referring to deed restrictions against Jews and Blacks. “There have been times in my life where it’s hard to say outwardly ‘we’re Jewish,’” she says. As a teen, Judy was president of Virginia Council BBG, as a young adult, she chaired United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Young Adult Division, and today she is actively involved in UJFT’s Women’s Cabinet. “The Yom Kippur War in 1973 affected us all,” says Judy. During those worrisome weeks and while she was BBG president, she attended community rallies and ran errands to help raise funds for Israel. In 1974, Judy participated in the Summer Institute for Jewish Living, spending a month in Israel with area teens—a trip that included time spent at a Gadna Camp, on a kibbutz, and touring throughout the Jewish state. Four years later, Judy travelled again to Israel, but this time on a Federation Mission with her parents and Chuck and his wife, Nancy. “My mom was the bus captain on that trip and I think that solidified our commitment to Israel and Jewish causes,” she says. In 1974, Sam became president of the Jewish Community Center. In 1984, Chuck took a turn at the job. “When I became president of the JCC it was truly the beginning of the next generation stepping into a leadership position. Prior to me, all of the presidents had been my father’s generation. I began the next generation of JCC leaders and I was followed by my peers, Linda Samuels, Marshal Bonnie, Jeff Kramer, Cheryl Sloane, and others,” says Chuck. Asked about accomplishments during his tenure, Chuck recalls one
of the biggest as presenting Itzkah Perlman to a soldout concert at Chrysler Hall. “As a little antidote, Mr. Perlman was supposed to attend a reception for our sponsors after the concert. He decided he didn’t want to,” says Chuck. “So, I asked the JCC executive director where the check was for Mr. Seated: Trudy and Sam Rosenblatt and Judy Rosenblatt. Perlman and he told Standing: Alan and Barbara Rosenblatt and Chuck and Nancy Rosenblatt. me he had already given the check to him, where upon I together. My grandparents lived close told the exec the check was no good as to us growing up. It was very normal to it required my signature as president for see them on a regular basis. I always felt that amount of money. My exec had to go extra fortunate for that. My cousins on my tell Mr. Perlman the check was no good mom’s side didn’t get to see their grandand Mr. Perlman could find me at the parents that often. I knew all of mine well reception for my signature. Of course, Mr. into my adulthood.” Perlman had a change of heart and came Amy is engaged to be married in 2022 to the reception and was very cordial and in South Florida where Nancy and Chuck gracious during the event.” now live year-round. “It’s important to Chuck Rosenblatt and Nancy Rosen my fiancé and me that we’re married by lived two houses apart on Millbrook Road a rabbi who knows us,” she says. “For in Wexford Terrace. Married for 47 years, us that was non-negotiable. We’re very they raised daughters Amy and Barbara happy that Rabbi Panitz is able to come in a traditional Jewish home, with both to Florida to be with us for the wedding.” sets of grandparents, and several close Rosenblatts are tough and strong—and relatives nearby. tender. “Family is everything to my father,” “We get it from both sets of our says Amy Rosenblatt. “No matter the sitgrandparents, says Barbara. “They were uation, he does whatever is needed to be all strong in their own way, but how they done. There is nobody I want on my side showed caring was different.” more than my dad.” Judy and Barbara are attorneys who Growing up, Nancy and Chuck were practice very different areas of law. immersed in tzedakah culture in their “Barbara and Judy have so many similarirespective homes. In the Rosenblatt ties,” says Amy. “They both fight for what house, lessons on giving back were modthey’re passionate about. I’ve always been eled early and often. It was a lifestyle impressed by that. practice, like health and wellness, not a “The joke was we get together and the one-and-done diet kind of deal. topic would turn to law and politics. As Amy and Barbara both went to Hebrew young kids, ages eight and five, there was Academy of Tidewater. “We grew up nothing we could do about it. My uncle Jewish,” says Amy. “I always loved the idea was a judge; my father and grandparents continued on page 10 that holidays were about family getting jewishnewsva.org | September 27, 2021 | JEWISH NEWS | 9
