Religious School & Adult Education
Bamidbar Religious School operates on Sunday mornings, 9:30am to 12 noon. The schedule roughly follows the public school schedules.
On the weekends when the student rabbi is in residence, we offer Torah study for the adults. Other adult classes may be made available based on demand. If you would like to see us offer a class, ask us!
Our Teachers
KATHY MUSTAIN
Kathryn (Katriel) Mustain is the Religious School Director for Congregation Bambidbar. She has lived in the High Desert for 12 years, and has been involved with the temple for six of those years.
She earned a Bachelor's in Political Science from UCLA, and received her teaching credential from Cal State Northridge. Thereafter, she married and began working for Hesperia School District. She has been at Hollyvale Elementary every since.
Kathy became involved with the temple when her son was four and realized that he needed to begin his religious education. Of course, she has learned way more than he has in the process. Kathy took adult Hebrew through the temple (thank you Sandy!) and had an adult Bat Mitzvah ceremony two years later. Now she even confidently leads services.
Kathy is thankful to Congregation Bambidbar. The smaller size has given her the opportunity to become involved in a way that wouldn't have been possible in a larger congregation.
JUDITH PFEFFER
Miss Mazal (aka Judy Long, aka Judith Pfeffer) has taught "Kita Bet" (officially grades 2 to 4, but students have sometimes ranged in age from 5 to 11) for seven consecutive years, making her the senior Sunday School teacher at Bamidbar.
She is originally from the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles and many years ago taught at the largest Reform and Conservative synagogues there (Stephen S. Wise and Valley Beth Shalom, respectively). She has a teaching certificate from the State of Israel, a community college teaching credential and has been a substitute in the Adelanto School District. Her primary career is teaching journalism at the community college level.
JOY WRIGHT-ROLES
Joy Wright-Roles (Chedvah BatZion, aka Ms. Chedvah) is a mother of 4 and grandmother of 3. Raised in the churches, Joy converted to Judaism in 2005 after a 10-year journey connecting back to a lost Jewish heritage. Joy became bat mitzvah in May 2006 and has been teaching the older students at Bamidbar since then. She is close to completing her Master's in Secondary Education from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, AZ.
Joy loves languages: she took French, German, and Spanish in high school and, after being out of school for a number of years, went back to major in Liberal Arts with an English concentration. She also tutored English and French at Victor Valley College while a student there.
Joy credits her understanding of Hebrew to Sandy Fredman, who spent 3 years teaching adult Hebrew class at Bamidbar, and to her husband, David Roles, who studies his Hebrew religiously every day.