Marilyn Glovinsky discusses her upbringing in New York and moving to Las Vegas. She was involved in establishing Congregation Ner Tamid. Her daughter, Melissa, talks about growing up in Las Vegas and attending Hebrew Academy.

Marilyn Glovinsky was born January 20, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of a teacher, Lilyan, and police sergeant, Solomon Goldberg. Marilyn split her childhood between New York City and Los Angeles, where she spent the summers with her maternal grandparents. In 1963, she graduated with a bachelor?s degree in speech pathology from Brooklyn College. A year later she married, and the couple soon moved to Salt Lake City, where her husband had been hired as a graduate assistant at the University of Utah. In Salt Lake City, Marilyn worked as a first grade teacher. It was there that she attended her first High Holidays service, at the Reform synagogue. It wasn?t long before her husband enlisted in the United States Navy, and they were stationed Camp Legeune, North Carolina, for nearly three years. The couple later moved back to Utah, where their children Melissa and David were born. In June of 1974, Marilyn and her family moved to Las Vegas. She quickly integrated herself into the Jewish community, and was amongst a small group of families that started Congregation Ner Tamid. She went on to play a critical role in the growth of the synagogue, including taking on an interim operations management role at one time, and also leading the development of the Hebrew School, to tremendous success. Marilyn?s daughter has emulated her mother?s dedication to making Judaism accessible to members of the local community, particularly through education and social activities. Even as a fifth grader at the Hebrew Academy, Melissa took on additional responsibilities, assisting in the school office. Now, in addition to her job as a teacher at Doral Academy, Melissa teaches b?nai mitzvah, conversion and Hebrew School classes at Ner Tamid. She also leads programming for NextGen, a group dedicated to creating community amongst young Jewish adults in their 20s and 30s. Melissa is married to Todd Lemoine, and they have one child named Colton.

In this interview, Arlene discusses her family and important friendships; her relations with and impressions of the disparate Las Vegas Jewish communities; the meaningful ways her Jewish relationships in Duluth, Winnipeg, and Las Vegas intertwine; her theatrical, professional, and philanthropic work; the reasons she and Jerry became active Zionists; and their support for Israeli causes. Her liberal sprinkling of Yiddish terms enriches her speech as it exemplifies her deep cultural attachment to and identification with her Jewish heritage, despite the fact that her wide and diverse circle of friends remains predominantly non-Jewish.

Actor, director, friend, mother, producer, wife, and volunteer extraordinaire Arlene Piekoff (now Blut) arrived in Las Vegas in 1971 with two young children and husband, Michael Peikoff, who was opening a surgical practice. Arlene was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota, where she attended a Conservative Jewish temple but had mostly non-Jewish friends. She met Michael at the University of Minnesota, and they married before he began medical school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Arlene and Michael followed his residencies and fellowships to California, Michigan, and Manitoba before they came to Las Vegas Through her brother in law and Ayn Rand?s intellectual heir, Leonard Peikoff, Arlene was exposed to Ayn Rand Objectivism, a philosophy that still influences her political outlook. After her 1975 divorce she began working at the Jockey Club; founded the Meadows Playhouse, Las Vegas?s first professional black box theater; and started Renta Yenta, the valley?s first full-service event planning business. In 1980 she married tax attorney Jerry Blut in a Renta-Yenta-produced, Fiddler-on-the-Roof-themed wedding at Paul Anka's Jubilation Restaurant.

In this interview, Rabbi Malcolm Cohen speaks about observed differences between British and American Jewish communities as well as new Temple Sinai initiatives to build community and engage younger congregants. Rabbi Cohen and his wife have two children, Elijah and Rachel.

Rabbi Malcolm Cohen was born on October 7, 1973 in London, England. He describes having the typical Reform Jewish upbringing of a second generation Londoner. His mother worked as an office assistant, and his father ran a bookshop and also prepared youth for their bar and bat mitzvahs. It was his father?s dedication to Jewish education and service that greatly influenced his career path. After earning a degree in psychology from Southampton University, Rabbi Cohen went on to get a professional qualification in youth and community work. He subsequently became the British Reform movement?s first outreach officer, leading the efforts to engage 20- and 30-year-olds to Judaism. At his wife, Sarah?s, encouragement, Rabbi Cohen enrolled in Leo Baeck College to become a rabbi. Upon finishing his studies in 2006, he got a job at West London Synagogue, a large Reform congregation, where he worked with a team of rabbis. In 2009, Rabbi Cohen took the position as Temple Sinai?s rabbi, where he has served ever since. In this interview, he speaks about observed differences between British and American Jewish communities as well as new Temple Sinai initiatives to build community and engage younger congregants. Rabbi Cohen and his wife have two children, Elijah and Rachel.

During the early 1970s, the boom of Las Vegas included many single people following family who had already settled there. Among those was Martin (Marty) Wilner. Marty?s parents were Leo and Mickey Wilner. Leo moved to Las Vegas to become the Executive Director at Temple Beth Sholom, the only synagogue in town. Marty, who was born and raised in California, had recently earned his doctorate in psychology at the University of Houston. He became a counselor at UNLV. Not long after, Marty met Linda at a Jewish Singles event. Linda was a divorced, mother of three children, who had moved from California to find comfort in living near her parents. Robert Wilner is one of her three children. He was adopted by Marty and works with his mother in the real estate business. In this interview, they recall together the Las Vegas of the 1970s. For Robert, he remembers his bar mitzvah, and growing up with Jewish friends under the careful eye of his grandparents. As an adult, he has enjoyed a successful career as a real estate agents working with his mother. For Linda, the success of real estate was being part of one of the most robust housing markets in the country. She and Robert recall an extensive list of visionaries who developed the valley, as well as the inherent challenges of water, unions and maintaining their high level of ethics.

In this interview, Schwartz talks at length about her passion for compassionate hospice care, and her broad involvement with the Nathan Adelson Hospice, from volunteering to serving on the board to philanthropy, which included opening the Walter Schwartz Center for Compassionate Care. Schwartz also talks about other philanthropic giving which includes establishing scholarships at George Washington University and University of Michigan as well as support to Temple Beth Sholom gift shop.