Jewish educator Tamar Lubin Saposhnik dies at 91

Tamar Lubin Saposhnik, a Jewish educator who founded the school that eventually became the Adelson Educational Campus, died Tuesday.

Lubin Saposhnik suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and passed away at Silverado Red Rock Memory Care Community at age 91. She was surrounded by her family.

Born in Jerusalem in 1934, Lubin Saposhnik was devoted to Judaism and a Jewish education. She and her husband, Paul Saposhnik, immigrated to the United States in 1956. She earned her doctorate in education from the University of Rochester in New York in 1979 while raising three children.

She then moved to Las Vegas to become principal of what was then the Albert Einstein Hebrew Day School at Temple Beth Sholom. In 1980, she renamed the school The Hebrew Academy Las Vegas. The school had 57 students from kindergarten to second grade, according to the UNLV special collections archives.

Lubin Saposhnik worked with Milton Shwartz, who donated money to create the Milton Schwartz Hebrew Academy in Summerlin, which opened in 1990. That land is where the Adelson Educational Campus, which opened in 2008, sits today.

School was her ‘baby’

Lubin Saposhnik’s daughter Thalia Karny said she still remembers arriving in Las Vegas in the summer of 1979 with her mother.

At the time, she said the school was in a basement at the temple.

“It was absolutely haphazard,” Karny said.

On the first day of school, a student died in a school bus fatality. Karny remembers joining her mother at the scene, which was flooded with reporters. Throughout, Lubin Saposhnik remained calm.

Karny, a 7th-grader at the time, wanted to pack up and go home. But Lubin Saposhnik was not going anywhere.

“My mother was determined, because that’s who my mother was, to make any situation work,” Karny said. “That’s the essence of who she was. She was not going to give up on this journey.”

Lubin Saposhnik left every day at 5 a.m. and returned home at 8 p.m., according to her son, Dan Saposhnik.

“My mom just made the school her baby. She devoted all her life to the school.”

‘Cast of characters’

Lubin Saposhnik’s tenure at the school she loved eventually was cut short amid controversy, the details of which her son said were “sordid.” She was fired by the board.

Lubin Saposhnik published a book about the time, titled “From Chaos to Order.”

“Years of hard work and dedication was poured into the rising of the academy, in establishing a firm foundation, and in creating what the MIS Hebrew Academy is now today, only to be brought down by those whom she never expected to do such,” the book’s description reads.

Karny described the school as having a “cast of characters” amid the old, “pre-corporate” Las Vegas.

“It was like living the Scorsese movie but in a school,” Karny said, referring to the movie “Casino.”

At the time, Karny and her mom dined at the buffet at the Flamingo each night while her father and brothers wrapped up in Rochester.

‘You don’t forget that Tammy’

“Tamar’s dedication to family, friends and career with her unique pursuit of excellence touched countless people, not just in her home communities … but across the ocean to countless friends and family abroad,” her son Jon Saposhnik wrote in a message.

Born and raised in a poor area in Jerusalem called Mea She’arim, Lubin Saposhnik did not have an easy life. Lubin Saposhnik raised her younger brothers, Abraham and Michelle, according to her daughter-in-law Laurie Saposhnik.

“She was super passionate about Israel and she loved her family fiercely,” Laurie Saposhnik said. “There was nothing more important to her than her family. She was a person that lived by very strong morals.”

Laurie Saposhnik said that as her daughter-in-law, she was grateful to have such a beautiful relationship with her.

“You don’t forget that Tammy when you meet her,” Laurie Saposhnik said, joking that she was “not a wallflower.”

Karny described her as “a woman of conviction.”

“For some people, that can be very intimidating or scary. But this was how she accomplished what she did,” Karny said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.

The Review-Journal is owned by the Adelson family, founders of the Adelson Educational Campus.