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Raben, Barbara, 1945-
Barbara (Shulman) Raben (1945- ) is a leader in the Las Vegas, Nevada Jewish community. She moved to Las Vegas in 1991 and was a member of Temple Beth Sholom before joining Midbar Kodesh Temple shortly after its establishment in 1995. Raben became involved with the Southern Nevada Chapter of Hadassah in 2003 when she participated in the Hadassah Leadership Academy program. She later served as President of the Chapter. She is also involved with the Jewish Family Service Agency of Clark County, Nevada.
Person
Poon, Percy
Dr. Percy Poon was born January 10, 1958 in Hong Kong, China, the oldest of four children. He attended Catholic school through junior high and high school, but decided to work after high school instead of going on to college. After working in banking and police forensics for a couple of years, he decided to continue his education.
Person
Schwartz, Stanley
Schwartz was born on May 13, 1926 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He attended Colorado Military School in Denver, Colorado and the University of Southern California. He left the university without a degree and went into the merchant tailoring business in Los Angeles, California. After that business went bankrupt, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada with his brother, Seymour Schwartz, around 1951 and started Schwartz Brothers Clothing.
Person
Molasky, Beth, 1950-
Beth Molasky-Cornell was born November 29, 1950 in Florida and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada before her second birthday. She graduated from Valley High School in 1968, and started college at the University of Southern California at the age of seventeen. After spending a couple of years in Rhode Island, where she had her children, she moved back to Las Vegas in 1975.
Person
Pollak, George
George Pollak was born October 31, 1924 and raised in Mattapan, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, the second youngest of five kids. He could listen to a song on the radio and play it on the piano by ear when he was as young as four years old. He had several jobs growing up, including working in a record store and as a busboy. Eventually Pollak and his brother joined a trio with Steve Harrington and performed in clubs. On April 1, 1951, Pollak married his wife, Florence, in Boston.
Person
Canty, Hattie, 1933-2012
Hattie Canty was born and raised in St. Stephens, Alabama. She moved to California as a young woman to seek employment, and married and started a family. Canty's family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in the late 1960s and she found work as a maid for the Thunderbird Hotel and later the Maxim Hotel and Casino. Canty became a Culinary Union Local 226 member. Over the years, she became involved in securing better salaries for women and increasing the number of African Americans in high-paying positions in the casino industry.
Person
Giles, Reva
Reva Giles grew up in the little town of New Carlisle, Indiana and was one of twelve children. Her mother stayed home with the children while her father worked for Studebaker, a large automobile manufacturer. Right after high school, Giles moved to Redland, California, to live with a sister, working first at an ice cream shop and then a bank.
Person
Weiss, Walter
Walter Weiss (1935- ) is a former boxer and casino professional in Las Vegas, Nevada. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Weiss started his boxing career at 16 years old and moved to New York City in 1953 to train professionally. His aptitude for boxing led him to be a sparring partner in New York City’s famous Stillman’s Gym, where he worked with some of the greatest fighters of the era including Rocky Marciano and Jack Dempsey. In 1958, Weiss moved to Las Vegas to find work with a local bookmaker, Elliott Price.
Person