Oral history interview with Marilyn Glovinsky and Melissa Lemoine conducted by Barbara Tabach on April 02, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Glovinsky and Lemoine recall moving from Salt Lake City, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada. They discuss helping start Congregation Ner Tamid, and their involvement with the Jewish community.
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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.
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Marilyn Glovinsky talks about growing up Jewish in New York "without thinking about it," and the decision to send her daughter to Hebrew School in Las Vegas.
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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.
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Marilyn B. Glovinsky (née Goldberg, 1942-2016) was a retired speech pathologist and real estate agent in Las Vegas, Nevada. She moved to Las Vegas from Salt Lake City, Utah in 1974, and was involved in founding Ner Tamid, the first Jewish reform congregation in the valley.
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Annual report from Congregation Ner Tamid, 2013-2014
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Annual report from Congregation Ner Tamid, 2011-2012
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In this interview, Unger-Wadkins discusses growing up in Las Vegas? close-knit Jewish community in the 1960s and 1970s, and involvement with various Jewish youth organizations and activities. She also describes her career in public relations, reflecting upon the unique challenges faced when interacting with the public, and with politics, in her positions. Unger-Wadkins ends by describing her current work in land development, particularly the history of the Three Kids Mine and the technical and political process of ensuring the land is suitable as a residential area.
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