| Sabbath Starts: 7:30 p.m., 05/14/2004 (23 Iyar 5764) |
AS OF MAY 17, 2004, THIS WEBSITE WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATED. IT HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A REDESIGNED SITE AT A DIFFERENT URL HOSTED BY A NEW COMPANY. THANKS TO PENGUIN PRODUCTIONS OF VICTORVILLE AND ALL OTHERS WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE TO SERVE YOU FOR THE PAST FOUR-PLUS YEARS. FOR FUTURE NEWS ABOUT THE ORGANIZED JEWISH COMMUNITY OF THE VICTOR VALLEY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, PLEASE VISIT http://www.bamidbar.net
Sunday School is on hiatus until September 2004. The school, teaching Hebrew and Jewish religious subjects, is for children 4 to 14 and runs roughly from just after Labor Day to just before Mothers' Day. For more information, e-mail the webmistress at jep831@earthlink.net
The recommended time to light Sabbath candles for the Victorville, Calif., area this coming weekend is 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 14, 2004. Never leave candles burning unattended! The equivalent Hebrew date is 23 Iyar 5764. The Torah parsha is Be-Har-Be-Hukkotai, Leviticus 25:1-27:34. The haftara is Jeremiah 16:19-17:14.
Beginning Hebrew reading for adults (ages 14 and older) is generally held at the temple building most Sunday mornings that the children's program is held there, starting at 9:30 a.m. Only members of the temple (who must be Jews) may enroll their children in the Sunday School; however, teen and adult non-Jews are eligible to attend the adult Hebrew class. As is true of the children's Sunday School, no meetings of the adult Hebrew class are being held during the summer. For details concerning either program, including respective fees involved, e-mail the webmistress at jep831@earthlink.net.
Even during school breaks, other temple activities (including weekly Shabbat services at 7:30 p.m. sharp every Friday) continue as usual. For more information, e-mail the webmistress at jep831@earthlink.net
The temple newsletter is published 12 months a year and is free to members; a sample issue will be mailed to others upon request. The deadline for the newsletter is the 20th day of the previous month, so for instance the deadline for the June 2004 newsletter will be May 20, 2004. Submissions may be made by e-mail to jep831@earthlink.net. Please clearly mark submissions as being intended for newsletter publication.
Bamidbar Shel Ma’alah, founded in 1978 and meeting at its present location since 1994, is the only Reform synagogue between San Bernardino, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev., along the Interstate 15 corridor. Some 50 families belong to this congregation, affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism (formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations) uahc.org. Most congregation members live in Adelanto, Apple Valley, Hesperia or Victorville, but some hail from Lucerne Valley on the east, Barstow on the north and Wrightwood on the west. All people, regardless of their background, are welcome at Bamidbar activities; however, actual membership is available only to Jews.
Bamidbar, whose full name is the Hebrew phrase meaning "in the desert up high," meets at 15347 Sixth St. at Tracy Street in Victorville. The mailing address is P.O. Box 2440, Victorville, CA 92393-2440. The telephone message number is 760-241-6398.
Like virtually all Jewish congregations, Bamidbar is an independent organization. Bamidbar is governed by a board of directors composed of a dozen synagogue members who are elected every two years by the general membership. The most recent election was held May 1, 2004, and the board members will begin their terms July 1, 2004. The president-elect is Therese Stein. You may send e-mail to this site’s webmistress at jep831@earthlink.net and your message will be given to her or to another appropriate member of the board.
Bamidbar holds Shabbat services every Friday evening of the year promptly at 7:30 p.m. with either the student rabbi, adult members of the congregation or religious school students officiating. During the school year the visiting student rabbi leads one Friday night service monthly, and, the weekend of the visit, congregants may hold a potluck dinner and possibly other educational activities that Saturday night.
Judaic computer links that may be of interest to Internet users are http://www.bamidbar-shel.org, representing the nearest Conservative congregation, Bamidbar Shel Ha'am, 130 Eastgate Road, Barstow; http://www.olam.org which has a spritual emphasis; www.jewishfamily.com, www.jewfaq.org, www.jewz.com and www.jclla.org which is the Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles; ClickonJudaism, a website from the Reform perspective designed especially for Jews ages 20-40 at www.clickonJudaism.org; Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, www.icheic.org; the Jerusalem Post, www.jpost.com; the Anti-Defamation League, www.adl.org; the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, www.wiesenthal.org; the Jewish software company Davka davka.com; the women's organization Hadassah hadassah.org; the political organization Jewish Defense League jdl.org; and two large, comprehensive directories of Jewish resources on line, Shamash and Jewishnet: shamash.org/trb/judaism.html and www.jewishnet.net
To receive information on Bamidbar Shel Ma'alah or anything concerning Jewish life in the high desert of Southern California, please leave a message by mail, phone or e-mail.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, the webmistress checks e-mail on a daily basis and updates this site on a weekly basis. She gratefully acknowledges the continuing assistance of Jim Long jpl315@earthlink.net of Penguin Productions, Victorville, for the creation and maintenance of this website, which first went online in March 2000.
Thank you for your interest in Bamidbar Shel Ma'alah.