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Transcript from interview with Sari and Paul Aizley by Barbara Tabach, November-December, 2015
Paul and Sari Aizley discuss their many accomplishments as residents of Las Vegas, including those in education and with Jewish Family Service Agency.
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Edythe Katz oral history interview
Oral history interview with Edythe Katz conducted by Walter Duttweiler on March 01, 1977 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Katz discusses the Jewish community, Ralph Denton, atomic testing, and integration in movie theatres.
Archival Collection
Transcript of interview with Roberta Kane by Barbara Tabach, September 6, 2017 and May 22, 2018
Roberta “Bobbie” Kane (1932 - ) is the first known Jewish child born in Las Vegas. Her parents, Sallie and Mike Gordon, were liquor stores owners and among the founders of the first Jewish congregation in Las Vegas. Bobbie’s childhood remembrances are as a young girl who was fully aware that “Friday nights were reserved for religious services. Saturdays were always reserved for gin rummy.” In the late 1940s, as a teenager at Las Vegas High School (and 1950 graduate), Bobbie recalls Las Vegas as a small town and a joyful place to grow up. She briefly attended University of Southern California before marrying and beginning her family. In time, life brought her back to live with her parents. She pursued a career working for the Desert Inn group of hotels and helped open the Stardust in 1957. She was mentored by Mark Swain, “a six foot-four hunk of a cowboy” who worked for Moe Dalitz. This experience included driving Mark’s pink Cadillac to pick up hotel guests. This provided her with a
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Program from event commemorating retirement of Leo Wilner as Executive Director of Temple Beth Sholom, 1984
Program booklet for the testimonial dinner held for Leo Wilner's retirement includes dedications from colleagues and friends.
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Transcript of interview with Dr. Leonard Kreisler by Barbara Tabach, May 23, 2016
Dr. Leonard Kreisler, MD, was born August 3, 1930 in Brooklyn to post World War I European Jewish immigrants. Raised in the smaller community of White Plains, New York, he worked happily by his father?s side. The elder Kreisler was a cabinet maker and carpenter, who Len describes as fiercely independent. Young Len keenly helped his Yiddish language father write his contracts and guided him to increasing his prices. At an early age, Len knew that he would become a medical doctor?little did he know what an amazing life was in his future. It was while attending the University of Vermont, College of Medicine that Len met his wife Joan. They married in June 1957. Joan became a teacher and later a real estate agent while in Las Vegas. This interview includes stories about his medical education and his thirteen year private medical practice in Peekskill, New York. This was followed by a career in occupational medicine and over seventeen years as the Medical Director at the Nevada Test Site for Reynolds Electric and Engineering Corporation (1973 ? 1990). During that time he was also elected Chief of Staff at University Medical Center (UMC) for two years and helped create the Children?s Miracle Network Telethon and the UMC Foundation. When he recalls moving to Las Vegas, his memories include jogging by Temple Beth Sholom and joining a minyan. He became a congregation vice president. When his career at the Test Site was halted, his medical adventure led him to be a maritime physician for a cruise liner. He also ran twice for Clark County Commissioner against Thalia Dondero. Dr. Kreisler is the author of several books: Death by Any Means (2005); Roll the Dice, Pick a Doc and Hope for the Best (2009); The Codes of Babylon (2010); Shortfall (2011); The Obligated Volunteer (2014) and In Bed Alone, A Caregiver?s Odyssey (2016).
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Gertrude Rudiak oral history interview
Oral history interview with Gertrude Rudiak conducted by Claytee White on January 11th, 2007 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. Gertrude Rudiak was a local civil rights pioneer, wife of George Rudiak, and has lived in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1943. She raised her five children in Las Vegas and was active in the Jewish community. In her interview Rudiak discusses Jewish life and culture in Las Vegas.
Archival Collection
Transcript of interview with Henry and Anita Schuster by Claytee White, March-April 2011
In this oral history, the long married couple Henry and Anita Schuster recall the history of the 1930s and how they eventually met and created a life together. Their childhoods were distinctively different, but charter a future where they would inevitably meet. Born in Germany in 1926, Henry recalls the dawn of Hitler and the Nazism. His mother would arrange for his evacuation to France, where he would not know her fate or that of his two sisters for a number of years. Along with hundreds of other displaced children, he escaped to America and lived with relatives in Louisiana where he finished his schooling and joined the US Army. Anita on the other hand grew up with her family in New York. They share the story of meeting when she was 16, falling in love and marrying in 1948. They had four children and moved several times before settling in California. They retired to Las Vegas in 1993. Henry's recollections include childhood memories of the Holocaust and its affect on his family, including the loss of his mother and one of his sisters. Finding his surviving sister Bertel (Betty Kale) after the war is a heartwarming tale of survival. The Schusters are part of the approximately 300 members of the Holocaust Survivor Group that has settled in southern Nevada and Henry was President Emeritus of the group. He published his memoir, Abraham's Son-the Making of an American, in 2010.
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Shelley Berkley oral history interview
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