When Don Belding accepted a teaching job in Kingman, he searched the Union for Reform Judaism Web site to see if there were any synagogues in the area. He found Congregation Or Midbar.
Two years later, the former board member of a San Bernardino, Calif., synagogue serves as president of the small congregation, which has 13 member households.
Although it's a small synagogue, its members have big plans. One member donated land, and Belding says they hope to someday build their own building there. For now, they meet for monthly lay-led Shabbat services in the meeting room of a Realtors association.
When driving through church-lined streets of northern Arizona towns, one may assume that Jewish communal life exists only in larger metropolitan areas. That assumption is wrong.
Last year, Sedona's Jewish community finished construction on a new building on two acres of land. A synagogue in Lake Havasu City owns its own facility and holds Shabbat services twice a month. In Prescott, congregants meet weekly for Shabbat in their own building and a group of Jewish individuals have organized a chevra kadisha (Jewish burial society).
Many of these congregations began as a small group of people gathering for holidays.
About 18 years ago, the Jewish Community of Sedona "started as a group of loosely knit people who were interested in celebrating holidays," says Elaine Fox, executive vice president. Then about 14 years ago, the group asked Rabbi Albert Plotkin, rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale, to lead monthly Friday night services. He also conducted Saturday morning children's services and then Saturday morning Torah study classes.
"Little by little, we started adding activities," Fox says. Now there's a Wednesday morning minyan, a men's club, a women's chavurah, a Jewish book club and monthly lay-led services - in addition to a monthly rabbi-led service. In February 2004, the community completed its own building. "Little by little, we started becoming more of a total congregation," Fox says.
On Sept. 9, the Jewish Community of Sedona will dedicate its sanctuary to Plotkin and his late wife, Sylvia, in honor of the couple's work with the synagogue.
The synagogue, which is in the process of searching for a full-time rabbi, also has a cultural endowment committee, which helps support cultural activities in town, such as a film series and the Red Rock Music Festival. Other programs include High Holiday services - led by Plotkin - Sunday school for elementary students through b'nai mitzvah and adult Hebrew education classes.
In Lake Havasu City, Temple Beth Sholom also started as a small group of people who met for holidays, until it became an official congregation in 1991, says Robert Goodrich, who has lived in Lake Havasu for 18 years and has served as president of the congregation for three years. Rabbi Steven Newman of Las Vegas conducts Shabbat services twice a month, and the synagogue offers High Holiday services and b'nai mitzvah training. Shabbat services are the second and fourth Friday of each month and are preceded by a potluck dinner.
Many synagogues - regardless of where they're located - state membership as a challenge. Apparently this holds true even when there's only one synagogue in town.
Temple Beth Sholom in Lake Havasu City has 38 member families, and Goodrich calls membership the Reform synagogue's biggest challenge, although "we're actually doing very well considering our size." The congregation has its own building and just completed a remodeling project. But "people move and we have trouble replacing (them)," he says. "We lose about the same number we gain, but it's always frustrating to lose some of your core members ... You never know if you're going to replace them or not."
Membership at the synagogue in Sedona includes 100 families and 70 individuals, including congregants from Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Flagstaff, Sedona and Oak Creek. The synagogue also includes those with dual residences in Sedona and the Phoenix area.
The Prescott synagogue, which was founded in 1978, has about 160 members, says president Richard Sharp, and the Flagstaff synagogue, founded in 1972, has an average of 60 families each year, says President Gary Pearlmutter.
Or Midbar plans to launch an outreach effort to bring in more members to the Kingman congregation. "I don't think a lot of people know we're around," Belding says. In a 2001 Jewish News article, the synagogue reported 24 membership units, but the number has dropped because people moved away, Belding says.
But he's optimistic because the area is growing, which he hopes will bring in more Jewish families.
"The town is growing amazingly," he says. "If we can let people know we're here and have something going for them, I think we would have a good size congregation, if not even in the years to come two or three congregations here."
The role of a member at a small synagogue is often quite different from that at a larger synagogue.
"Because we're a fairly small congregation and we have not had a full-time rabbi, one of the things that's important is that we've had a lot of members of our community take major roles," Fox says of the Sedona congregation. Several members lead monthly Shabbat services - in addition to Plotkin's monthly visits - and one member runs a Wednesday minyan. "There's been a lot of involvement by members of the congregation," Fox says.
If large Jewish communities have trouble finding unaffiliated Jews, how do the small-town synagogues accomplish this?
Before the Jewish Community of Sedona finished its building, synagogue leaders conducted a study, which concluded that only about 25 percent of Jews in the area are affiliated, Fox says. To reach others, they write a weekly article for local papers, including the Red Rock News, Verde Independent and the Cottonwood Journal. They also advertise special events, such as High Holiday services, in local papers, as well as Jewish News. The synagogue also has a Web site, and people can sign up to receive a monthly newsletter.
The Lake Havasu City congregation also runs regular articles in its local newspaper. But "most of the people who are looking to commune with fellow Jews seek us out," Goodrich says.
Sharp says it's similar in Prescott, where families and individuals seeking a Jewish connection track down the synagogue themselves.
In the Greater Phoenix area, synagogues have the benefit of being part of community events, such as the synagogue fair that will be held at the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center on Aug. 21 or communitywide events such as the Jewish National Fund's Tu B'Shevat Festival or the Israel Independence Day celebration sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
But distance can sometimes cause a smaller synagogue to feel disconnected from the rest of the Jewish community.
"We're pretty much an island out here,"
Goodrich says from Lake Havasu City. However, the synagogue does occasionally get visitors from the Las Vegas area. "We welcome anybody who wants to see the London Bridge and come to services," he says.
In areas a little closer to Phoenix, such as Sedona and Prescott, synagogue members meet visiting rabbis and Valley visitors who want to take a break from the heat. The Jewish Community of Sedona synagogue has a visiting rabbi program, and rabbis from all over the country from different branches of Judaism lead services and teach classes. Rabbi Zalman Levertov of Chabad of Arizona visits Sedona twice a month to teach an adult education class.
Because Sedona is only a two-hour drive from Phoenix, it's not unusual for the synagogue to have 20 visitors at a single Shabbat service, Fox says. "We'd love to have more people from Phoenix come up and share in our activities," she adds.
Since the departure of Temple B'rith Shalom's rabbi in May, "a number of rabbis from the Valley have (visited Prescott) and have been very gracious and very kind to come up for specific Shabbat weekends," says Sharp. "We've had an opportunity to sample a lot of what people down in the Valley experience. That has tended to connect us a lot with the other communities." Temple B'rith Shalom has started a search for a new full-time rabbi.
In addition, Prescott's religious school children occasionally come to the Valley by carpool or bus to participate in synagogue or Jewish community programs "so they can have experiences with other Jewish kids," Sharp says.
As in most small towns across America, Jews are a minority. But for the most part, most of Arizona's synagogues have a good relationship with their non-Jewish neighbors, including offering interfaith programs.
The Jewish Community of Sedona has a "very close relationship" with nearby churches, Fox says. Before they built their own building, the synagogue's services were held at different churches. The building stands on land purchased from the Lutheran church, and they share a parking lot. Other programs have included an interfaith Thanksgiving service and a summer Bible class for children.
"Over the years, the churches have been very welcoming in allowing us to use their facilities for our activities when we did not have our own building," Fox says.
Goodrich says that in his 18 years in Lake Havasu, he hasn't experienced any anti-Semitism, but some of his fellow congregants have complained of incidents. "Like any town, we've had our share of anti-Semitism," he says. For instance, one Catholic man attends services with his Jewish wife, so some people have refused to play golf with him.
Belding says that there is a messianic congregation in Kingman and proselytizers have approached him, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. "In the past, there has been hostility," he says, "but I think that's well in the past."
Another challenge of being the only synagogue in town is that synagogue leaders often serve people from a broad spectrum of Jewish backgrounds.
"Geographically, we have people coming from the East Coast and the West Coast and all points in between who bring a lot of different backgrounds and traditions," says Sharp of Prescott. "A major challenge is ... trying to provide something for everybody and trying to walk a line which can attract people from different backgrounds and a great diversity of views and cultural experiences."
The Jewish Community of Sedona is not affiliated with any denomination and plans to stay that way, Fox says. "We're trying to serve the needs of all the Jews in our community." In fact, she says "one of the biggest challenges is trying to have meaningful Jewish experiences for everyone ... no two people want the same Jewish experience."
Synagogues in northern and western Arizona
Congregation Beth Hamidbar
781 S. Second Ave., Yuma
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 5634, Yuma 85366
(928) 210-8368
Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley
100 Meadowlark Drive
Mailing address:
P.O. Box 10242, Sedona 86339
(928) 204-1286
Fax: 928-284-0906 www.sedonajewishcommunity.org
Temple Beth Sholom of Lake Havasu City
P.O. Box 812, Lake Havasu City 85405
(928) 680-0017
