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For this Jewish surf camp in Virginia, the beach is their sanctuary

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (JTA) — On a recent morning at Sandbridge Beach, just a short drive down the coast from the city of Virginia Beach, an unexpected fog disrupted beachgoers’ otherwise picturesque summer setting.
The fog was so thick that even the water became invisible, and everyone was forced out of the water. Most swimmers and surfers retreated to their towels for a break.
But one group returned to their tent and, after a quick snack and a new layer of sunscreen, formed a circle. They began by singing the Jewish prayer “Mah Tovu”, mashed up with the hymn “Sanctuary.” Then after a brief introduction from camp director Danny Mishkin, who explained the concept of “B’tselem Elohim,” the idea that people are created in God’s image, campers took turns sharing what gifts they bring to their community.
Such is the dual mission of Sababa Beachaway, a Jewish overnight camp in Virginia Beach that specializes in ocean education and exploration through a Jewish lens. The camp offers four focus areas — surfing, sailing, scuba diving and an education track called “ocean discovery” — on top of typical camp activities and Jewish programming and prayer.
“We teach a more spiritual style of Jewish learning and Jewish engagement,” Mishkin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Mishkin explained that the camp’s approach to spirituality enhances campers’ connection to both their Judaism and to the ocean.
“It really does flow back and forth,” he went on. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, here’s the Jewish time.’ We’ll actually get to the beach, do a prayer about making the beach a sanctuary. So that they’re aware to nature, they’re aware to being fully present. It enhances their specialty, but also the specialties are very in-the-moment specialties and have a little bit of adrenaline rush to them. And that enhances our Jewish programming. They’re a little more open to a more spiritual life when you take them to the beach, which is a very innately spiritual place.”
Sababa director Danny Mishkin, standing in center, begins the morning by leading a moment of meditation. (Jacob Gurvis)
Maya Cohen, 16, said being at Sababa has helped her connect spiritually, which wasn’t as easy for her before camp. “I like the community. It feels like a second home to me,” she said.
Sababa just wrapped up its fifth summer, which consisted of three two-week sessions for campers ranging from 9 to 17 years old. Though the camp has experienced considerable growth — from 80 sessions sold its first summer to 230 this year — it’s been anything but smooth sailing.
Mishkin and his co-founder and co-director Lynn Lancaster created a day camp in New York in 2015, with help from a Jewish grant for out-of-the-box summer programs for teens. Both directors are synagogue veterans with a background in Jewish education and youth engagement.
Lancaster, a longtime sailor herself, said she and Mishkin chose to create a surfing program because it provided an opportunity that was not readily available to children in New York.
She also referenced “Race to Nowhere,” the 2010 documentary about the increasing burnout and depression children can experience in the face of mounting pressure to succeed at a young age. In other words, what better way to escape the pressures of school and college applications than to spend a summer at the beach?
Mishkin, who added that he sees Sababa as the place for “over-programmed kids,” has been surfing for around 20 years, since he took two lessons during his honeymoon in Hawaii and “became obsessed with it.”
After a few summers running the day camp, which started with only nine campers, Mishkin and Lancaster took the next step and launched an overnight camp in Virginia, with support from the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s incubator program. While some Jewish camps in California allow campers to specialize in surfing, Sababa may be the only Jewish camp primarily focused on the sport.
For the first two summers in 2018 and 2019, Sababa was based out of Old Dominion University in Norfolk. Then COVID hit. There was no camp in 2020, and in 2021, Sababa ran a scaled-back program in New York, where both directors live during the year.
Sababa then returned to Virginia last summer, moving to Virginia Wesleyan University, which Lancaster said has been the perfect spot. The campus features a swimming pool, climbing wall and sports fields. And the school accommodates Sababa’s need for a kosher kitchen, too.
“It’s been a nice, smooth five years. It was really easy-going,” Mishkin joked.
“What camp wouldn’t want to take a year off after two years of running? It was fabulous,” Lancaster added with a smile.
Starting last summer, Sababa became part of Commonpoint Queens, a social services organization in New York that runs local community programming and operates seven camps. A partner of New York’s UJA-Federation, Commonpoint’s camps are all Jewish and kosher or kosher-style, according to the group’s vice president of operations, Craig Lastres.
“It’s very difficult to survive as a mom-and-pop if you’re not attached to anything,” Lastres told JTA. Lastres said he tries to visit Sababa a few times each summer.
After navigating two COVID summers as an independent camp, Lancaster said being part of Commonpoint has been “a wonderful, wonderful thing for us.”
Since Sababa is not affiliated with a major Jewish denomination — and therefore is not connected to the Ramah or Reform camping networks — as an independent camp it did not receive the resources and support that come with being part of a camping movement, like help with fundraising, marketing, camp accreditation and so on.
Sababa’s campers represent a wide range of Jewish affiliation, from those who wrap tefillin and observe the summer’s fast days to those for whom “this is their Jewish connection,” Lancaster said. (There are also a few non-Jewish campers, drawn by the prospect of daily surfing.)
“I think as a camp and as a community, we are doing incredibly important work, as these kids are getting to know each other, they’re learning from each other’s Judaism,” she added.
Campers surfing at Sababa Beachaway. (Courtesy of Sababa)
Campers also come from a variety of socioeconomic and national backgrounds, with kids coming “from Park Avenue to the park bench,” Lancaster said. And this summer, Sababa welcomed campers from as far away as Israel and Uruguay, as well as a staff member from Mexico City.
One camper, who has spent four summers at Sababa, said that he has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and is on the autism spectrum. “What I love about this camp is they can accommodate for all that, and they support you,” he said.
With its campus next door to Norfolk, home to NATO and the world’s largest naval base, Sababa also tries to tap into the local military community by offering scholarships for military children through the Jewish Board of Chaplains.
Lancaster said she appreciates being able to offer such an opportunity, especially for a community that is not often prioritized in Jewish spaces.
“If there are [military] service people that want to have those Jewish values that they’re not getting, it’s an interesting market we’re trying to tap into,” Lastres added.
At its inception, Sababa only offered surfing, before expanding to add its three other specialty areas. The camp brings in local companies for the sport instruction, which both directors hailed as central to the program’s success.
“One of the things that’s also helpful when you’re dealing with nature as such a big part of your program is having locals help run it because they know —” Mishkin began to explain, before Lancaster jumped in, finishing her colleague’s thought: “they know the beach, they know the tides, they know weather. Danny and I can read that in New York with perfect ease, but this is their world,” she said.
While most of the instructors aren’t Jewish, Lancaster and Mishkin said they are fully bought-in to Sababa’s focus on spirituality.
“I think the ocean and the water, the wonder, transcends a particular denomination,” said Lancaster.
“When they see us do our morning ritual at the beach,” Mishkin added, “the head surf instructor said, ‘When I heard you say that, I knew I was part of something special. I just knew that this was a different type of program.’”
The campers spend Monday through Friday mornings at their specialties, which run for a week at a time and are split into groups based on skill level. In the afternoons, it’s back to campus for more traditional camp programming — activities like art, soccer, photography and drama. “It’s a lot like running two camps,” Lancaster said.
Evenings feature Jewish programming, hikes, bonfires and other nature-forward experiences. Then on Shabbat, the camp has egalitarian services on Friday night — a portion of the service has music, while the main ma’ariv section does not — plus four service options on Saturdays, ranging from traditional prayer to options centered around meditation, nature and drama.
Caleb Weiss, 14, said he comes to Sababa for his friends and to spend every day at the beach. “I think it connects what I love and my religion, which is really neat,” he said.
Jill Weinstein, a therapist from Atlanta who has worked at Sababa for three summers, said she has witnessed firsthand how the camp has enhanced kids’ emotional intelligence — especially in the context of water sports, where they have no choice but to get back up when a wave knocks them down.
“It teaches a lot of these kids resiliency and grit,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing to see where they start at the beginning of the week and where they end, and just the accomplishment and just the smile on their face when they accomplish something.”
The idea that campers will take home the lessons they learn at Sababa is a key component of the camp’s mission. Mishkin explained that they often do check-ins with campers where they share their “Sababa level,” a 1-10 scale of how present one feels in that moment. Mishkin said he has heard multiple stories from parents whose kids have used that same language at home and at school.
Eight years after starting the day camp in Queens, Lancaster said she “never had any idea this could become a full-time gig.”
But looking out at the water, where her campers were fully engaged in their surf lessons, with counselors standing by to help and offer words of encouragement, not to mention Mishkin waist deep in the ocean offering help to a struggling surfer, Lancaster echoed the sense of wonder the camp aims to imbue in its participants.
“How do you not recognize that you’re part of something bigger than yourself when you’re out here?” she asked, not expecting an answer. “And to do that in a Jewish context is very, very powerful.”
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Former Columbia University President Appointed as UK Economic Adviser

Columbia University administrators and faculty, led by President Minouche Shafik, testified before the US House Committee on Education and the Workforce on April 17, 2024. Photo: Jack Gruber/Reuters Connect
i24 News – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has named Minouche Shafik, former president of Columbia University, as his chief economic adviser at Downing Street, a move aimed at stabilizing the country’s fragile economy and averting a potential budget crisis.
Shafik, an economist of Egyptian origin with dual British and American nationality, has held senior roles at the Bank of England, the IMF, and the World Bank.
She later led the London School of Economics and was elevated to the House of Lords in 2020.
Her tenure in the United States was more turbulent. Shafik stepped down as president of Columbia University in 2024 after just a year in office, amid fierce criticism over her handling of pro-Palestinian protests following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
US officials accused her of failing to confront antisemitism on campus, while students and faculty condemned her decision to call in police to dismantle protest encampments.
Since returning to Britain, Shafik has played an active role in policy and cultural institutions. She advised Foreign Secretary David Lammy on international aid reform, has chaired the Victoria & Albert Museum since January, and led the “Economy 2030” inquiry for the Resolution Foundation, where she argued for reforms to the UK’s system of wealth taxation.
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Israel Mulls West Bank Annexation in Response to Moves to Recognize Palestine

The Jordan Valley. Photo: Юкатан via Wikimedia Commons.
Israel is considering annexation in the West Bank as a possible response to France and other countries recognizing a Palestinian state, according to three Israeli officials and the idea will be discussed further on Sunday, another official said.
Extension of Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank – de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war – was on the agenda for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet meeting late on Sunday that is expected to focus on the Gaza war, a member of the small circle of ministers said.
It is unclear where precisely any such measure would be applied and when, whether only in Israeli settlements or some of them, or in specific areas of the West Bank like the Jordan Valley and whether any concrete steps, which would likely entail a lengthy legislative process, would follow discussions.
Any step toward annexation in the West Bank would likely draw widespread condemnation from the Palestinians, who seek the territory for a future state, as well as Arab and Western countries. It is unclear where US President Donald Trump stands on the matter. The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did not respond to a request for comment on whether Saar had discussed the move with his US counterpart Marco Rubio during his visit to Washington last week.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the prime minister supports annexation and if so, where.
A past pledge by Netanyahu to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley was scrapped in 2020 in favor of normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The United States said on Friday it would not allow Abbas to travel to New York for the United Nations gathering of world leaders, where several US allies are set to recognize Palestine as a state.
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Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli forces pounded the suburbs of Gaza City overnight from the air and ground, destroying homes and driving more families out of the area as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet was set on Sunday to discuss a plan to seize the city.
Residents of Sheikh Radwan, one of the largest neighborhoods of Gaza City, said the territory had been under Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes throughout Saturday and on Sunday, forcing families to seek shelter in the western parts of the city.
The Israeli military has gradually escalated its operations around Gaza City over the past three weeks, and on Friday it ended temporary pauses in the area that had allowed for aid deliveries, designating it a “dangerous combat zone.”
“They are crawling into the heart of the city where hundreds of thousands are sheltering, from the east, north, and south, while bombing those areas from the air and ground to scare people to leave,” said Rezik Salah, a father of two, from Sheikh Radwan.
An Israeli official said Netanyahu’s security cabinet will convene on Sunday evening to discuss the next stages of the planned offensive to seize Gaza City, which he has described as Hamas’ last bastion.
A full-scale offensive is not expected to start for weeks. Israel says it wants to evacuate the civilian population before moving more ground forces in.
HAMAS SPOKESPERSON TARGETED
Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israeli forces had targeted Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson of Hamas’ armed wing. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Abu Ubaida was killed. Two Hamas officials contacted by Reuters did not respond to requests for comment.
Gaza health authorities said 15 people, including five children, were killed in the attack on a residential building in the heart of Gaza City.
Abu Ubaida, also known as Hozayfa Al-Khalout, is a well-known figure to Palestinians and Israelis alike, close to Hamas’ top military leaders and in charge of delivering the group’s messages, often via video, for around two decades, delivering statements while wearing a red keffiyeh that concealed his face.
The US targeted him with sanctions in April 2024, accusing him of leading the “cyber influence department” of al-Qassam Brigades.
In his last statement on Friday, he warned that the planned Israeli offensive on Gaza City would endanger the hostages.
On Saturday, Red Cross head Mirjana Spoljaric said an evacuation from the city would provoke a massive population displacement that no other area in the enclave is equipped to absorb, with shortages of food, shelter and medical supplies.
“People who have relatives in the south left to stay with them. Others, including myself, didn’t find a space as Deir Al-Balah and Mawasi are overcrowded,” said Ghada, a mother of five from the city’s Sabra neighborhood.
Around half of the enclave’s more than 2 million people are presently in Gaza City. Several thousand were estimated to have left the city for central and southern areas of the enclave.
Israel’s military has warned its political leaders that the offensive is endangering hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza. Protests in Israel calling for an end to the war and the release of the hostages have intensified in the past few weeks.