News & Stories

UJCVP Shabbat Message: One Family

On Tuesday, I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with 300,000 fellow Jews, allies, and supporters at the March for Israel in Washington, D.C., including many from our Virginia Peninsula community. We came together in record numbers – united, proud, and strong – to demand the freedom of all hosta…

UJCVP Shabbat Message: Our Shabbat Table

If you walked the streets of Tel Aviv this afternoon, you would come across a table set for 199, pristinely set for Shabbat yet searingly empty. The highchairs at a handful of seats, the children’s cups in other settings and the white roses alongside some of the plates make the symbolism …

Hundreds Gather for Israel Vigil to Mourn the Lives Lost on October 7

The Virginia Peninsula community gathered in support of Israel on Wednesday, October 11, just days after the tiny nation was brutally attacked. Nearly 500 people, including many political dignitaries attended the Rally for Israel to condemn the terrorist acts of Hamas against the Jewish home…

UJCVP Shabbat Message: Audacious Hospitality

On Sukkot we are instructed to be happy. 

Known as z'man simchateinu - our time of rejoicing - the holiday of Sukkot represents a break from the challenges that confront us and reminds us of our formative experience wandering in the desert for forty years. The holiday reminds us to go "b…