During the Thanksgiving holiday, I visited the Simon Family Jewish Community Center of Tidewater (the JCC), a place I had visited before, but never truly experienced as it was meant to be lived. My earlier encounter had been during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Jewish spaces, like so many others, felt provisional and restrained: masked, socially distanced, outdoors, muted and careful. This time was different. The building was open, alive and rooted again in the steady rhythms of communal life.
And what I saw inside offered both beauty and quiet instruction.
There was much to admire: a thoughtful space designed for human presence, a K–5 school alive with children’s voices, a room honoring the Shoah, an Israeli flag flying with confidence. It was a place that carried history and purpose without spectacle, continuity without self-conscious display.
