LV Jewish leader Wilner dies

Leo Wilner was raised in an orthodox Jewish home, but he also grew up in the melting pot that was Brooklyn, N.Y., learning early on that all people are pretty much the same.

His father, Rabbi Moses Wilner, a Talmudic scholar, taught his son the traditions of the faith and read daily from the Torah. For a while, Leo studied to become a rabbi.

He later adopted the less stringent conservative ideology of his religion, but also was flexible in his beliefs, enough to lend a hand to struggling reform synagogues.

If it weren't for Wilner's great skills at finance, Las Vegas Jewish leaders say that synagogues like Temple Beth Sholom, where he served as executive director during its formative years, and Congregation Ner Tamid and Temple Bet Emet, where he was an advisor, never would have achieved the success they now enjoy.

Leo A. Wilner, who was appointed to several state boards by Democratic Govs. Richard Bryan and Bob Miller and served as a temporary rabbi at local temples where he delivered sermons he wrote from his studies of the Talmud and other sacred books, died of heart failure Thursday at Columbia Sunrise Hospital. He was 81.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 36 years were Sunday at Palm Mortuary-Eastern. Interment was in Palm Valley View Memorial Park, beside his wife of 48 years, Mildred "Mickey" Wilner, who died in 1989.

"Leo was a man of honesty and integrity who always had a ready smile and a caring ear," said Rabbi Sanford Akselrad of Congregation Ner Tamid, a reform Jewish synagogue.

"Just being a Jew was most important to Leo, regardless of any particular ideology (orthodox, conservative or reform). Many times he helped us out when the chips were down. He was always there to provide support."

Martin Wilner, a psychologist who lives in Henderson, said his father was real tough when it came to running the finances of the synagogue, but he also was a tender, sensitive and caring man when it came to just about everything else.

"He talked about how he grew up in a melting pot with friends who were Italians, Pols, blacks and Jews," Martin Wilner said. "One of the landmark signs of his character was his appreciation of all people -- prejudice was not part of this man.

"He always enjoyed doing things that would build the whole community -- not just the Jewish community. He wanted to add a dimension of spirituality to this gaming town."

After serving as director of Temple Beth Sholom, a conservative synagogue, from Jan. 1, 1966, until his retirement on June 1, 1984, Wilner served on the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners (1985-93), the advisory board of the Nevada Division of Aging Services (1991-95) and the Nevada Commission on Aging (1988-94).

Born Jan. 13, 1917, in Brooklyn, Leo was given the Hebrew name of Avraham Eliezer Ben Moshe Tzvi Wilner. The youngest of four children of Bella and Moses Wilner took the more Americanized version of Leo Abraham Wilner at a young age.

Leo graduated from Jefferson High School in New York and for two years attended a yeshiva, a school for potential rabbis. He quit to got to work and help his family.

Wilner, who in his prime stood 6 feet 1 inch and weighed 225 pounds, worked at numerous physical jobs like furniture mover before moving to the Los Angeles area in the mid-1940s where he opened a dry cleaners. He later used his business and religious training to become a longtime executive director of a synagogue there.

In the early 1960s, friends talked Wilner into moving to Las Vegas where he took the job at Temple Beth Sholom. He was instrumental in getting the synagogue on its feet and operating the Jewish Community Center of Las Vegas, Inc.

After he retired, Wilner stayed on as adviser to the board and president of that temple and the other two. He underwent triple heart bypass surgery in 1984.

In the mid-1980s and early '90s, when two area synagogues were searching for permanent rabbis, Wilner served as a temporary rabbi. He conducted Shabbot services on Friday evenings and Passover sedars, among other rites.

"He had come full circle," Martin Wilner said. "But when people tried to call him Rabbi Wilner out of respect, he would correct them by saying he never wanted to be anything he wasn't.

"However, he was a very learned man. Rabbis often came to my father for advice on religious as well as financial matters."

In 1985, Bryan, now a U.S. senator, appointed Wilner to the medical examiners board. Miller reappointed him to that board and later appointed him to the Pastoral Care Committee of Sunrise Hospital, where he served as chairman (1993-94).

Wilner was an honorary life member of the North American Association of Synagogue Administrators and an alternate to the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline.

He also served as chairman of the South Valley Unit of the American Cancer Society, was a charter member of the B'Nai B'Rith Men's Nate Mack Lodge No. 2825 and was a member of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas.

Wilner served on the Paradise Township Advisory Board (1994-95).

In addition to his son, Wilner is survived by another son, Robert Jack Wilner, of Laguna Niguel, Calif.; two daughters-in-law, Linda Wilner of Henderson and Elyse Wilner of Laguna Niguel; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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