About Beth Shalom Temple Center
It was a balmy day in Green Valley in the fall of 1981 when a young man came up and introduced himself as Jack Stone. He had moved to Green Valley from Chicago to help sell condominiums. He had noticed the Star of David necklace Ros was wearing and asked if we were Jewish. He had been looking for some Jewish friends, to no avail, and came to the conclusion that there weren't any Jews in Green Valley. Through a series of outreach actions, a group of about 30 Jewish people found each other and began to celebrate social and Jewish events together.
The group decided to call themselves The Jewish Friendship Club of Green Valley and met more often, on the second Sunday of each month for bagels and coffee at Pima Savings. Money was collected from each of the attendees to offset the costs.
The mission of the club was to establish a viable Jewish presence in Green Valley, where newcomers could meet to find friends and information about activities in town. We adopted a pay-as-you-go philosophy to cover the costs of each of our programs by the persons attending. Every affair was a break-even event run by the members who volunteered, without taxing those who did not attend.