Part of an interview with Elliot Karp on December 17, 2014. In this clip, Karp talks about his vision of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas as a tent under which all Jewish people can find a place to thrive.
Elliot B. Karp oral history interview, 2014 December 17. OH-02217. [Audio recording]. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d1988570n
English
My analogy of the structure of the Federation is I'm trying to create a big tent. But the tent is not a monolithic, single fiber that everybody has to look the way I look. In fact, the tent is a quilt and that quilt is made up of all the different organizations, synagogues and agencies of the Jewish community. It's a quilt work, which means that it's made up of all the different organizations. But now I'm going to take it one step further. As a member of the Jewish community, when you step under the tent, you can step under the tent under one patch, your synagogue. But sometimes you're not only standing under the synagogue. Sometimes you can stand under the Federation patch. Sometimes it could be the JCC. Sometimes it's the ADL, the Friends of the IDF. In other words, you can move around underneath the tent because that's what the Jewish community is; it's a dynamic community. You don't have a single affiliation. Some people do. Most people are going to, okay. Or you can be exposed to it. What we all share in common is we're trying to bring more people that are standing on the outside inside the tent. The tent is open all the way around. There isn't one door to walk in. You can come from anyplace and you can stand wherever you want to stand. My job at the Federation is to provide that framework that provides for that level playing field where everybody can address these issues together; and, hopefully, we raise the money from everybody to support the services.