Oshman Family JCC Blog

Seven Reasons Why Everyone Should Celebrate Purim

What’s not to love about a drunken, raucous holiday with a built-in excuse to dress in drag? Here are seven reasons why even non-Jews should get on board with Purim: 1. A Juicy Story Full of Death and Deception Purim celebrates the salvation of the Jewish people in the 4th century BCE when...

Why We’re Taking Our Family to Israel This Summer

Mah Nishtana HaVacation HaZeh? What makes the JCC-led Community Israel Trip different from all other tours? For us, figuring out the answer to that question was the key to unlocking our decision to not only join the trip, but to chair it as well.     We’ve been to Israel...

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A Special Place for Families

The OFJCC’s Leslie Family Preschool is a special place where children and families are nurtured and supported. Hear what our parents and staff have to say about the program in this new video: Visit our website for more information about the OFJCC and our amazing preschool.

Our Oasis Playground: The Tinker’s Workshop

What could be better than exploring Charlie’s chocolate factory or visiting Gepetto’s workshop? We think it was our trip to Scientific Art Studios (SAS) where the OFJCC’s Oasis Playground is being fabricated. In January, the OFJCC senior management team visited SAS at their Richmond workshop to see the progress on our Oasis and...

Carving a New Path

If you engage in any sort of media these days you will be confronted with the discourse on the roles of women and their autonomy, value, rights and access. The discussions vary from reproductive rights, parental leave, access to STEM education to religious roles. It is often the case that the fault...

John

My Jewish Journey: John

Until the winter of 1938, John and his family led a charmed life in the small university town of Würtzburg, Germany. He and his two brothers had a childhood filled with love and laughter. Who could have known what imminent horrors awaited? Sadly, we know too well what tragedy lay in...

Maccabi Games

Going for Gold

In a world where we’re increasingly consumed by smart phones, video games and social media, encouraging our teens to build meaningful relationships is more important than ever. Since 1982, JCCs across the country have sent teams of teenagers to participate in a week-long sports competition focused on team bonding and good old-fashioned, face-to-face...

J-Camp

Adventure Awaits: J-Camp 2016

Here we are just a week into 2016 and it’s already time to start planning for an exciting summer. Last year, the Oshman Family JCC welcomed a record number of campers to J-Camp to surf, swim, run, play, build, explore and learn. We went to theme parks, explored nature, performed on...

Mitzvah Day

My First Mitzvah Day

As a non-Jewish person working at a Jewish Community Center I had to ask myself…Mitzvah…what the heck does that mean? As I’ve done so often since I began working at the OFJCC I turned to Google to find out the meaning of another Hebrew word I’m not familiar with. Simply put,...