Midbar Kodesh Temple's young adult group recently hosted a Shabbat dinner for the representatives of the Jewish Nevada's Ramat HaNegev delegation, in Las Vegas for their annual visit. Two of the representatives, selected from 15 communities that make up Ramat HaNegev, spoke from the bima, introducing the group of six. They shared that these diverse communities represent 22% of the physical land of Israel. The Negev Highlands, located 90 minutes south of Tel Aviv, is the la

Jacob Braunstein becomes a bar mitzvah on October 28. Jacob attended Solomon Schechter Day School until fifth grade, really giving him a leg up on his Judaic and Hebrew studies. He now loves to play the guitar, and video games of course! He also loves silly time with his sister. Jacob's bar mitzvah project will raise money for programming for FEAT, Families for Effective Autism Treatment.

Last year over the High Holidays I spoke about the concept of Upstanders. Upstanders is a term coined by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz as part of a campaign on the Starbucks website to raise awareness about ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things. It is when we, who are all bystanders take the step to make a difference in someone(s) life. When we do, we go from bystander to upstander. The thing about the Upstanders series is that it teaches that it doesn’t take much to

Over the past year or so, the rabbinic and lay leadership of the Conservative movement has been studying and debating the issue of intermarriage. Specifically, we have been focusing on the question of allowing rabbis to attend, let alone officiate at interfaith weddings. We have also been confronting the question of how to make families feel welcome in our congregations. Attached is a piece written this week by the leadership of our movement to address these very questions.

Hi Midbar Kodesh! We're the Lampert family. Robert is a pulmonologist with OptumCare Pulmonary and Allergy. He has been practicing in Las Vegas for 20 years and is originally from South Africa. Randi is a pediatrician with Positively Kids. She moved here from Houston, TX, 20 years ago and in addition to her practice she stays busy volunteering for Hadassah. Aaron and Daniel were both born here at Valley Hospital. Aaron is currently a freshman at Cal Poly SLO studying computer

Milestone birthdays should be celebrated in big ways. A 4 year old Jordan said that we should have a birthday cake every year in honor of his sister. On her 2nd birthday, the day of her unveiling, we built a sukkah with Dr. Andy Eisen, a pregnant Diane and a young Jonathan, a tradition still shared by the families, all these years later. Jessica Ann Doctors was born on October 4, 1996, the second child to Tiffany and Steven Doctors. She would be 21 years old this week. We