Harry Kogan was born March 11, 1916 to poor Russian immigrant parents in the Jewish ghetto of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kogan sometimes walked to school shoeless, with no hat nor a raincoat. A treat would be his mother handing him ten-cents to go to the theater and enjoy a silent movie. After graduating from high school in 1933, Kogan quickly took one of the rare jobs available in a garment manufacturing company where he worked his way into being a skilled and valued fabric cutter—a job that paid $35 a week.

Lynn Rosencrantz was born September 15, 1949 in Portland, Oregon, and spent her childhood there as a member of a vibrant Jewish community. In 1973, Rosencrantz married Arne Rosencrantz and relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada to join her husband. He was working at Garrett’s Furniture, a company they would later own together. Her first job in the city was teaching hearing impaired students at Ruby Thomas Elementary School.

Melissa Lemoine (1970- ) is a teacher at Doral Academy of Nevada and the coordinator of the NextGen program at Congregation Ner Tamid in Henderson, Nevada. She also teaches b’nai mitzvah, conversion, and Hebrew School classes at Ner Tamid. Born March 22, 1970, Lemoine arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1974 and has actively participated in the Jewish community since a young age.