Hermina Washington was born December 23, 1957 in Henderson, Nevada. To take advantage of emerging opportunities for African Americans, her parents migrated from Arkansas to Las Vegas, Nevada, joining several extended family members already settled in the city. Growing up during the Civil Rights Movement, Washington was surrounded by strong, inspiring role models, including her grandmother and educators.

Samuel Smith was born July 26, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Smith moved to New York to finish high school, and stayed in the city to become a police officer. He stayed there until 1978, when he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. He took a job as an inspector with the fire department, and remained in that position until he retired in 2003.

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.

Bernice Eisenberg has been a Las Vegas resident since 1955 and was a part of the formation of Midbar Kodesh Temple. Eisenberg was a teacher and has taught at many Las Vegas schools. She met her husband, Ivan, at the Jewish Community Centers’ social club for young adults and married him in 1956. During the mid 1990s Las Vegas was a growing and Temple Beth Sholom was the only synagogue and Eisenberg worked to help form Midbar Kodesh Temple to serve the growing Henderson community. Bernice has two children.

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.

Harvey Riceberg was born in Canada and received their pharmacy degree in Arizona. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1968 to receive a license because Arizona wouldn’t recognize him as a citizen. Riceberg married his wife, Janis, in 1975.

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.