Or Hamidbar
Legal name: Or Hamidbar B Richard Jeffery
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 833403215
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2019–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Palm Springs, CA, United States
- Phone
- 8184556569
- Rating
- 95
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Judaism
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $127,022
- Expenses
- $135,045
- Assets
- $44,721
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- RABBI DAVID LAZAR (PRESIDENT &)
People named in this filing
- B RICHARD JEFFERY (TREASURER)
- RABBI DAVID LAZAR (PRESIDENT &)
- DR SOO BORSON (BOARD MEMBER)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Or Hamidbar is not one-size-fits-all Judaism. We are a new kind of group — creating progressive Jewish spirituality in the desert. Since his ordination by the Schechter Institute in 1993, Rabbi Lazar has led congregations in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, and Palm Springs. As a Jewish educator in a variety of frameworks, he continues to promote inclusive Jewish practice and interfaith dialogue. Rabbi Lazar was among the earliest international LGBTQ advocates, performing the first gay wedding in Israel in 2001, years before same-sex marriage was legal there. His non-profit service includes the Israel AIDS Task Force, the Jerusalem Open House, and the Rabbinical Assembly. David and Sascha Lazar now live in Palm Springs, California, where Rabbi Lazar serves as spiritual leader of Or Hamidbar. For more details about Rabbi.
What it reported doing in 2025
The organization primary exempt purpose accomplishment is to bring all individuals whether jewish or not , believer or skeptic, student or scholar, just trying it out or tried and true wherever we are in our spiritual journey.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 75% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 100
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Sustainability: 17
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 99.2%; rating input score 99
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -6.3%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.33; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 56%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1% per year; rating input score 0; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 99.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $134K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
- Consistency: 7 of 7 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules
- Filing history: 7 filing years from 2019 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 18/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 28/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.