Oral history interview with Gene Greenberg conducted by Barbara Tabach on February 12, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Gene Greenberg discusses moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, working in television ad sales, and becoming executive vice president and general manager of KVBC-TV. He also talks about his ties to the Jewish community, his parents being holocaust survivors, and about his family life.
Archival Collection
In this interview, Mike and Susan Baller reflect upon their lives in Las Vegas, from growing up as teenagers amongst the tight-knit Jewish community, to mob influence on the city, and the impact of the city's growth. Mike shares stories about first arriving in Las Vegas to live, being a teenaged busboy at Binions Horseshoe to being related to Moe Dalitz -- in Michigan Mike drove a truck for the Dalitz dry cleaning business.
Text
In 1961, at the age of thirteen, Gerald ?Jerry? Gordon became a bar mitzvah. This typical coming of age celebration was unusual in that he had simultaneously studied in both his home state of California and his adopted home of Las Vegas, where he spent summers with his grandparents. 1961 is also the same year that the Gordons made Las Vegas their permanent home. Jerry graduated from Las Vegas High School, attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned his law degree from University of California, Los Angeles. His gregarious and trustworthy personality led him to career building steps in the legal community of Las Vegas that included illustrious names such as Louis Wiener, Jr., David Goldwater, Neil Galatz, and many others. His personal law specialty became bankruptcy, especially dealings with hotel/casinos. As a member of the Jewish community, Jerry?s energy and expertise to organize was instrumental in the construction of Congregation Ner Tamid, the reform synagogue, at its site on Valle Verde and I-215. It was a multi-year process and includes a vast array of stories?a cash donation from Moe Dalitz, finalization of receiving of a donation land from the Greenspun family during the High Holy Days, and the ongoing challenges of a building campaign during a recession. In addition, he explains that CNT included two unique negotiations: 1) a cell tower and 2) a solar field on the synagogue?s property. Jerry and his wife Yvonne met while attending UNLV. Yvonne taught math at various levels in the Clark County School District. They raised their two children, Sara and Jeffrey, in Las Vegas, and forged an important role together in Congregation Ner Tamid. In April 2017, they were among those honored for their work with the synagogue.
Text
Jerome "Jerry" D. Countess holds a photograph of his late wife Rachel at his Sun City Summerlin neighborhood home. The couple were married in 1945. Countess established The Jewish Reporter newspaper in Southern Nevada.
Image
A scrapbook album from the Temple Beth Sholom Sisterhood and Jewish Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The album features photographs, news clippings, newsletters, and ephemera from various events.
Mixed Content
A scrapbook album from the Temple Beth Sholom Sisterhood and Jewish Community Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The album features photographs, news clippings, newsletters, and ephemera from various events.
Mixed Content
Oral history interview with Sonja Niekerk Walther and Wilma Vandenberg conducted by Barbara Tabach on November 20, 2017 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Walther and Vandenberg discuss surviving the Holocaust, being raised in the Netherlands, and their families’ journey to the United States and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Archival Collection
Rabbi Sanford Akselrad in the Joyce & Jerome Mack Sanctuary at Congregation Ner Tamid on the Greenspun Campus for Jewish Life, Learning & Spiritual Renewal.
Image
Oral history interview with Shelley Berkley conducted by Barbara Tabach on February 13, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Berkley shares her family history, from her great-grandparents’ immigration to the United States to her immediate family’s migration from New York to Las Vegas, Nevada. She reflects upon her childhood experience in Las Vegas, including her varied leadership positions with Jewish organizations as well as at school, from junior high school through college. Berkley also talks about her involvement as an adult within the Jewish community and more broadly as a public servant, in all levels of government.
Archival Collection
