Rejoyce Williams was born April 26, 1905 in Fordyce, Arkansas. She left Fordyce when she was 17 for Oceanside, California, with her husband and their two children. The family then moved to Saginaw, Michigan, and eventually had nine children, six of whom survived. In 1960, the Williams family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada for two reasons: their youngest daughter, who suffered from asthma, needed to live in a dry climate and Williams’ mother-in-law lived in Las Vegas.

Ira Goldberg grew up in the Bronx in New York City, New York. Goldberg moved to Las Vegas in 1978 with his wife from the Bronx, New York. Goldberg was a teacher in New York and continued to teach in Las Vegas. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and education and a master’s in counseling. While in Las Vegas he became an addiction specialist and a marriage and family counselor. He has owned his own small private practice dealing with marriage and family for the last thirty years.

Barbara Kirsh was born in 1957 and grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was involved in the Jewish community, attending Hebrew School and teaching at the United Synagogue Youth as a teenager. Kirsch went to college in Colorado and Boston and after her education moved back to Las Vegas to get involved with the family business, Ideal Office Equipment. When she moved back to Las Vegas she got involved with the Jewish Federation and was in the Young Leadership group. She has been an active member of Midbar Kodesh since its founding.

Janis Riceberg moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1974 while attending Long Beach State University. She worked as a special education teacher for the Clark County School District for twenty years and began teaching at the College of Southern Nevada in 2003.

Arby Hambric was born November 24, 1926 in Teague, Texas. He started working in the cotton fields at around age seven and was drafted into the United States Navy, before completing high school. Hambric enrolled in San Diego State College after leaving the U.S. Navy. He also worked as maintenance personnel for Sears and Roebuck, and started a catering business with his wife, Veronica. Hambric moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1976 after his wife died, and he became a member of the Southern Nevada Enterprise Company Board.

Jimmy Mulidore grew up very poor in a predominantly Italian town in Youngstown, Ohio. His father and grandfather both worked for Youngstown Sheet and Tool steel mill. However, Mulidore’s father was against his son working at the mill, instead buying him a saxophone between the ages of 8-10 years old. Determined to chart a different course for his son, Mulidore’s father urged him to learn how to play the saxophone and added, if he did, he would not end up in the steel mill. Adhering to his father’s request, he started lessons with Albert Calderon.

Laura Taylor was born in New Haven, Connecticut and spent her childhood bouncing between New York and Ohio to follow her father’s career. Robert Cox, her father, was a businessman who attended Syracuse University on the Government-Issued Bill. Her mother, Lillian Cox was a concert pianist and college music professor. At the age of seventeen, Taylor received a scholarship to attend the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Powell. Unfortunately, Dr.