OUR HISTORY

The History of
The Institute for Judaic Services and Studies at SaddleBrooke
and It’s Transition to

CONGREGATION B’NAI MIDBAR
As told by Joan Elder - Joel Wyner - Esta Goldstein

Sometimes a few people have the ability to create something that will last a quarter of a century and continue to thrive and grow with these ever-changing times. In 2000 there were three such men living in SaddleBrooke who felt the need to organize a Jewish community to be able to hold Jewish services right here in SaddleBrooke. Our timeline captures the progress our congregation has made growing, learning and changing during the last 25 years.

2000 - 2002
Daniel Fischler, Joel Waldstreicher and Stanley Udowitz met in each other’s homes for the initial planning to have services in SaddleBrooke. Joel Wyner, who attended most of the planning meetings, who provided much of the information found in this document. The name of the organization became The Institute for Judaic Services and Studies at SaddleBrooke (IJSS). Bylaws were written to formalize this new organization. The primary purpose of IJSS was to hold services on one Friday a month as well as High Holiday services within the SaddleBrooke community.

2003 - 2005
In 2003 the first High Holiday Services were held and Bennett Blum, a student at the Rabbinical school in Los Angeles, lead our services through 2005. Daniel Fischler was Chairperson 2003-2005. The first Torah was purchased from our Cantor Sara Mussman in 2004.
 

2006 - 2008
Barbara Dever was Chairperson 2006-2007 and invited Rabbi Sanford Seltzer to be the IJSS Rabbi for 2006; he served for one year. Rabbi Stephanie Aaron led services during 2007-2008.

2008 - 2018
Joel Wyner became Chairperson in 2008 and held that position from 2008-2015. Sam Horowitz was Chairperson 2016-2018.
Rabbi Joseph Weizenbaum lead services in 2009 followed by Rabbi Ze’ev Harari in 2010.
Leona Mitchell was our first cantorial soloist, and Carol Gordon was our volunteer accompanist 2011-2013 during which time we purchased an electronic keyboard at Carol’s recommendation.
Leona also held classes to teach members of our congregation the music sung during services. Leona and her husband Doug returned to Oregon to be closer to family.
 

2011 - 2020
Rabbi Seltzer returned to Tucson with his wife, Rita Pollak, and served as our rabbi continuously from 
 

2013 – 2020
Sarah Bollt became our cantorial soloist in 2013. Shortly thereafter she started her studies to become a Cantor, and in 2020 she resigned to focus on her Cantorial classes. With Rabbi Seltzer’s help, Eliyanna Powers, PhM., D.M.A., joined IJSS as our cantorial soloist in 2020 to present.
Carolyn Cochran was our accompanist from 2013- 2018. After her retirement we were joined by Chris Tackett, David Mancini-Conway, and Harrison Sheckler. Joshua Nichols, PhM, became the accompanist from 2023 to the present.
 

2019 – 2022
Joan Elder served as our next Chairperson (2019-2022) for the next four plus years – not an easy task during Covid. In 2021, during COVID, Rabbi Laura Harari became our rabbi and served for one year holding services on zoom and in person. In 2022 Rabbi Seltzer returned to IJSS.

As we came back together several focus groups were put formed resulting in several recommendations to the Board. One change was to develop a monthly e-newsletter which was immediately approved. Jerry Lankin suggested it be named “JEWISH LINKS” with the focus on bringing all Jewish activities in SaddleBrooke under one “umbrella” to better serve our community.
 

2023 - 2024
At the annual membership meeting in December 2023 Esta Goldstein became Chairperson and initiated the transition from IJSS to Congregation B’nai Midbar - “People of the Desert,” - the name was suggested by Joy Erickson. Our new name was approved by the membership.
The Chai Fund was created by Herb Weiss, Seth Eisner, Sam Horowitz, and Ron Soloman to raise money to purchase Congregation B’nai Midbar’s new Torah. It was presented to the congregation by Rabbi Seltzer at the Shabbat service in March, 2024.
Rabbi Seltzer retired in May 2024, at the age of 92. With his help our new Rabbi Daniel Price, was hired to serve our community starting in September 2024. We also renewed the contracts with the talented Cantorial Soloist Eliyannah Powers, PhM., D.M.A. and accompanist, Joshua Nichols, PhM.
Then came the revision of our By-laws, and the creation of our Logo. In 2024 the Board approved the development of a website contracting with the Israeli platform wix.com, and our domain name bnaimidbar.com was created. We also contracted with Shalom Cloud shalomcloud.com, a Jewish administrative software program. These two visionary projects promise to provide us a future with exposure to a larger community, a secure data base for membership information (birthdays/anniversaries/yahrzeits), credit card use, financial reports, and the continued growth of the Jewish Links. Judi Friedman, Sue Spaniol and Bonnie Lasky continue to work together to publish the Jewish Links and to provide development, implementation and maintenance for the Website/Shalom Cloud. The Website and Shalom Cloud went live September 2024.
We have been blessed to have this congregation serving the SaddleBrooke community since 2000. We look forward to the path ahead as we develop new programs, remain open to new experiences, embrace technology and welcome new ideas in the future. We will continue honoring our collective strength, beliefs and ideas for the purpose of lasting faith and Jewish learning. - August 2, 2024