Our History

Judaism flourishes in rural Kingman
Jewish News of Greater Phoenix
August 24, 2001/Elul 5, 5761

It's unlikely that a sukkah was built in Kingman when it was founded in the 1880s, but over the last three years, the Northwest Arizona town has not only had a sukkah, but High Holiday services, a Hanukkah latke party and community Passover seders that draw about 60 participants.

Congregation Or Midbar was founded in 1998 and has since grown to 24 member units, including families and individuals, with a mailing list of 53 Mohave County addresses.

"When we started, we were surprised to find each other individually, and then we were surprised to find that there were Jews hiding behind the cactuses here that didn't know each other," said Or Midbar president Robert Dudnick.

Dudnick moved to Kingman from Long Beach, Calif., in 1998 with wife Linda Zink; they were among the nine founding members.

The idea for the congregation started when a student rabbi from Temple Beth Sholom of Lake Havasu City visited the town to conduct a Shabbat service. "People said, 'we should do this all the time,' " Dudnick recalled.

In addition to monthly Shabbat services and a monthly adult discussion group, the congregation also planted a tree for Tu B'Shevat, and its children performed a Purim play.

"The education thing has been our biggest challenge and our most difficult problem," Dudnick said. But Congregation Ner Tamid, a Reform congregation in Las Vegas - about 100 miles from Kingman - sent education director Jackie Fleekop to Or Midbar on Aug. 22 to help develop a formal curriculum for the congregation's children. Zink works with some of the preteens, teaching Jewish history, customs and ethics.

Rabbi Sanford Akselrad from Ner Tamid handles conversions for the congregation. Zink estimates that 3/4 of its members are intermarried (raising their children as Jews) or are converts. During its first two years, High Holiday services were led by lay-leaders but last year Rabbi Harry Roth conducted the service. This year, services will be led by Rabbi Malcolm Cohen, a spiritual leader of Congregation B'nai Israel in Daly City, Calif.

The town, with a population of 34,631 in 1998, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security, was named after Lewis Kingman, a man who surveyed a railroad route between New Mexico and Needles, Calif.

Kingman, mentioned in the song "Route 66" by Bobby Troup, is 180 miles from Phoenix and about a 40-minute drive from Laughlin, Nev.

Dudnick describes Kingman as a blue-collar town and as "fundamentally" fundamentalist Protestant with a large Mormon component.

"Everybody's been real nice to us," Dudnick noted. "We haven't had any problems."

On Aug. 12 a rally was held as part of "Not in Our State!" day, proclaimed by Gov. Jane Hull. The rally was in response to a May announcement by Dennis Mahon, Midwest leader of the White Aryan Resistance, stating that he planned to move to Kingman.

The couple said they haven't encountered any trouble. "In fact, quite the contrary," Zink said. "This community, the city council, the leadership - official and unofficial - have been very welcoming of a Jewish community in Kingman."

Dudnick and Zink enjoy the mild climate and being surrounded by mountain ranges.

"There may be Jews in the Phoenix area who are getting fed up with the traffic and the crime ... who might consider Kingman as a place to go but they haven't because they don't think there are any Jews up here," Zink said. "Well, we do exist."