Slade Goldein and Stacey Simms
We both grew up in New York, connected to Jewish life in different but meaningful ways.
I grew up in Utica in a wonderfully diverse home. My father was an Orthodox Jew, and my mother was a Roman Catholic Italian who remained a practicing Catholic throughout her life. Together, they agreed to raise their children Jewish. My mom never converted but was very involved in our Reform congregation and the broader Jewish community. My brothers and I attended religious school, celebrated our bar mitzvahs, were confirmed, and spent summers at Jewish camp.
Stacey grew up in Yorktown Heights in a traditional Reform Jewish home. She attended religious school, became a bat mitzvah, participated in Jewish youth activities, and has fond memories of visiting her grandparents in Brooklyn and spending time at the YMHA. Those experiences helped shape her Jewish identity and connection to community.
We met working at a television station in Utica. Stacey was an anchor, and I was the production manager. As Stacey likes to tell the story, she often saw my name in the credits and joked, "I've met a lot of Goldsteins, but I've never met a Slade." We started dating and were married in 1998.
The following year, we moved to Charlotte when Stacey joined WBTV. We became members of Temple Beth El and, after moving to Davidson in 2003, affiliated with Temple Israel, whose rabbis were serving the growing Jewish population in the Lake Norman area.
As our family grew, it became clear that we needed a Jewish community closer to home. We wanted our children to grow up with strong Jewish values, traditions, and friendships. Many families were asking the same question: What are we going to do about Jewish life for our children? We became one of a handful of founding families of the Lake Norman Jewish Congregation, which eventually became Temple Kol Tikvah in 2008. In 2012, we celebrated another milestone when the congregation moved into its own building in Davidson.
Our legacy gift reflects our desire to ensure that future generations will always have opportunities to connect Jewishly, just as our family has. We have chosen to support both Temple Kol Tikvah and the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte because each played an essential role in building and sustaining our community.
We helped create something meaningful here. Through our legacy gift, we hope to help ensure that Jewish life in Lake Norman, at Shalom Park, and throughout Greater Charlotte continues to thrive for generations to come.
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