August - 2018

Meet Becky Lewis, Club Kehillah and PTO chair!

Andrew Spivak

Aug 28, 2018

Meet Becky Lewis, Club Kehillah and PTO chair!

Meet Becky Nathan Lewis! Born in Upstate NY, Becky and her parents, Arte and Kathleen moved to Las Vegas in 1986. She attended The Hebrew Academy (fun fact: Miss Wendy was her 3rd grade teacher), graduated from The Meadows in 1997 and later received her BA from UNLV. Becky has been married for 8 years to Jeff (ask them the story about how they met... it's pretty epic). Jeff's parents, Judie and Neal Lewis, and Jeff's sister and brother-in-law, Adam and Shira Wood are all long

Meet our newest members: the Silvernail fam!

Andrew Spivak

Aug 28, 2018

Meet our newest members: the Silvernail fam!

Hi Midbar Kodesh, we are the Silvernails. Kirk and Julia are both East Coasters who moved to Las Vegas about 4 years ago. We are both professors at UNLV, Kirk in Business and Julia in Biomechanics. We are also the proud parents of Tristan (5) and Logan (1). Tristan has just started religious school at Midbar Kodesh. We are excited to join this great community and look forward to meeting and getting to know you all!

Meet Miss Dawn at the Midbar Kodesh Early Childhood Center

Andrew Spivak

Aug 23, 2018

Meet Miss Dawn at the Midbar Kodesh Early Childhood Center

Miss Dawn joined the MKT ECC teaching staff three years ago. Miss Dawn is a wonderful asset to the teaching team as she works with Dubonim, one of two 2 year old classes. Dawn serves on the board of National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Her classroom has been videoed as an example of developmentally appropriate early childhood education. Dawn Wallace holds a Child Development Associates Certification and is pursuing a Bachelors’ Degree in Early Ch

Shabbat Shalom from the Midbar Kodesh Early Childhood Center students!

Andrew Spivak

Aug 23, 2018

Shabbat Shalom from the Midbar Kodesh Early Childhood Center students!

Preschoolers at the Early Childhood Center at Midbar Kodesh Temple returned to school in August. The students designed their own kippot as they readied for their first Shabbat together. Registration at MKT ECC is on-going for the STEAM based educational curriculum (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math). Skills in these disciplines are used to introduce an education that includes Judaica, holidays, Shabbat, Israel Awareness and Jewish values as well. For more inform

Meet Sivan Gavish - Midbar Kodesh Temple's USY Advisor

Andrew Spivak

Aug 22, 2018

Meet Sivan Gavish - Midbar Kodesh Temple's USY Advisor

Sivan Gavish was recently named as the new United Synagogue Youth Advisor, working with Youth Director Steven Doctors and incoming USY President Jonah Tecktiel. Sivan, just began her third year as a teacher in Midbar's Religious School. She also writes for the BestOfVegas.com. USY has been one of the most popular programs at Midbar Kodesh Temple, bringing together Jewish teens, grades 7th through 12th, in an informal setting. Youth Lounges are a favorite as well as programmi

Meet Director Wendy Roselinsky - Early Childhood Center at Midbar Kodesh Temple

Andrew Spivak

Aug 21, 2018

Meet Director Wendy Roselinsky - Early Childhood Center at Midbar Kodesh Temple

Wendy Roselinsky returns as Director of the Early Childhood Center at Midbar Kodesh Temple with an enthusiastic and capable staff who looks forward to working with the children of the ECC at Midbar Kodesh. Working closely with her teachers, Ms. Wendy has introduced the STEAM curriculum into the classroom where the children learn through inquiry, dialogue and critical thinking to problem solve and work through the creative process. STEAM is an educational approach to learning

Students return to Midbar Kodesh Religious School (and welcome new students too!)

Andrew Spivak

Aug 20, 2018

Students return to Midbar Kodesh Religious School (and welcome new students too!)

“It was so fun to be back with my Religious school friends. I was excited to see Moreh Mitch too!" Jacob Cherry Students recently returned to Midbar Kodesh Temple Religious School and many echoed the opinion of Jacob Cherry who said that "it was so fun to be back with my religious school friends!" Jacob, who spent part of his summer at Camp Alonim, also said that he was excited to see Moreh Mitch, referring to Mitch Karpp who returns to the religious school teaching staff a

Rabbi Bradley Tecktiel

Aug 16, 2018

The Hush of Midnight

The awe inspiring nature of our High Holidays lent itself to the establishment of several customs, rites and rituals of preparation. Last week I talked about the custom of sounding the shofar each day during the month of Elul to awaken us to the task of deep introspection of our acts and conduct of the past year. But there are still other rituals that help us prepare for the Days of Awe- another name for the High Holidays. One of those rituals is the selichot service. On t

Rabbi Tecktiel

Aug 7, 2018

Are We Prepared?

The high holidays are just over a month away. But in our tradition we do not wait until the last minute to begin preparing for the High Holy Days. In fact, we start beginning with the first day of the month of Elul which will begin on Sunday. Starting Sunday, and for the next forty days until Yom Kippur, we will be engaged in deep personal and communal introspection. What have we done right over the past year? What good have we done for ourselves, our families and our co

Rabbi Tecktiel

Aug 1, 2018

The Greatest Mitzvah Is One That Can Never Be Paid Back

Our tradition notes that the mitzvot that we perform out of pure altruism are the ones that are most significant. The only way we can know if one is being truly unselfish in doing a mitzvah is if it is an act of loving kindness performed for the dead, who have no way of reciprocating. Without the potential for trading “favors,” we can be assured of one’s true intentions in performing the mitzvah. I share all of this by way of introduction to a mitzvah that I have been discu