Oral Histories With Jewish Individuals Held At UNLV

Among the exciting moments so far in the Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project was the discovery of oral histories, many conducted as far back as the 1970s, of community leaders who happened to be of Jewish ancestry. We’re in the midst of reformatting dozens of perishable cassette tapes that include the voices of past gaming executives, business entrepreneurs, and longtime residents.

The list of recordings from the 1970s includes: Adele Baratz and her brother Charles Salton; Al Levy; Chic Hecht; Susan Fine and her father Hank Greenspun; Gertrude Greenblatt; Stanley Hyman; Irving Kirschbaum; Al Levy; Bess Rosenberg; Stanley Schwartz; Herb Tobman; Louis Wiener; and Stanley Weiner.

In addition we have contemporary interviews done in the 2000s of such individuals as: Stuart Mason; Arne Rosencrantz; Henry and Anita Schuster; Milton Schwartz; Jean Tobman with her daughters Janie and Marilyn; Walter Weiss; and Burton Cohen. There is an amazing series of oral history sessions done with Edythe Katz-Yarchever between 2000 – 2005 by Claytee White.

Our goal is to begin a perpetual flow of new oral history interviews for the collection. So we recently jumped into the goal with a session with Faye Steinberg by Barbara Tabach. So far we have added: Rabbi Shea Harlig; Arthur Marshall; Irwin Molasky; Susan Molasky; Myra Berkovits; and Douglas Unger—all of whom have unique stories and perspectives on local history.

We hope to continue to discover additional interviews from our archive of nearly 3000 oral histories. Meanwhile, we are actively recording oral histories that will preserve the fascinating history of the Jewish community and heritage of Southern Nevada.