The Broth Family have been members of Midbar Kodesh Temple for 14 years.

The Broth Family have been members of Midbar Kodesh Temple for 14 years. Andrea and Mitch moved from Hackensack, NJ to Henderson, NV in December 2003 with their 3½ year old son, Sam. Andrea was 6½ months pregnant with their daughter, Carly. Some of Mitch’s f

amily were already living in the Las Vegas area. Mitch was working at the Israel Discount Bank (IDB) in New York City as a relationship manager. He decided to interview with Wells Fargo in Las Vegas and was offered a similar position. It was a difficult decision, especially for Andrea, since most of her family resided in NY. Andrea was working at home as a tax accountant but her due date with Carly was March 15th (corporate tax deadline) so she knew she wouldn’t be working the following tax season anyway. They decided to move, but agreed if either was unhappy they would move back to New York. It is now 16½ years later and they are still here.

Mitch’s sister, who lives in town, was with her 3 year old son at the Paseo Verde Library and met a woman who was with her 3 year old daughter and they started talking. Mitch’s sister mentioned her brother and his family were moving to the Las Vegas area and were looking for a preschool for their son. This woman said that Midbar Kodesh Temple had a great preschool and that her husband was the synagogue’s Rabbi Wiederhorn. That is how the Broth Family came to Midbar. And this is where the Broth Family found their closest friends.

Sam thrived at Midbar's ECC and even did full day kindergarten since the public school at that time only offered half day. Carly started preschool when she turned 2. When Sam was starting second grade, the Broths decided to become members of Midbar since Sam was interested in becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Andrea and Mitch had only attended high holiday services and Mitch attended religious school to become a Bar Mitzvah, but they never belonged to a temple prior to Midbar. They have always felt at home at Midbar and enjoyed meeting all its members. They became fast friends with the Tecktiel Family when the Tecktiels joined the Midbar family, and Rabbi took his pulpit in summer 2008.

Andrea always wanted to go back to work when Carly was settled in school but there were always some obstacles. The hardest one was in 2011 when one of Andrea’s sisters had cardiac arrest which resulted in anoxic brain injury. Andrea, along with her other sister, became their sister’s guardian. This became a fulltime job for Andrea. It has been nine years and this past year they moved their sister out of New York to a residential neuro rehab community in Pennsylvania. This has provided a better situation for the family. Once Carly is settled in college, Andrea is hoping to return to work.

Both Sam and Carly joined Katan, Kadima and USY as soon as they were eligible and both served as USY board members over the years. They both celebrated their B’nei Mitzvah at Midbar as well. Coincidentally, Carly became a Bat Mitzvah 38 years to the day from Mitch’s Bar Mitzvah. Over the years the family has volunteered in several capacities, including working in the kitchen, ushering during the high holidays and being on the long term planning committee. Currently, Sam is a rising junior at Tulane University and Carly is a rising junior at Coronado High School. Both are home during this pandemic.

“Although the quarantine has been challenging, we have enjoyed the quality and quantity of time together at home these past few months but are looking forward to returning to some sort of normalcy. We hope everyone is getting through these crazy times the best they can,” said Andrea. “We feel lucky to have found Midbar all these years ago. Midbar has always been warm and welcoming to our family and we always feel comfortable spending time there.”