Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project Community Collection (MS-00790)

The Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project at the UNLV University Libraries is a multi-year initiative to collect, preserve, and provide access to primary sources documenting the history of the Jewish community of Southern Nevada. The project's goals are to conduct oral histories that capture first-hand testimony about Jewish life in Las Vegas; to seek personal and organizational archives about the community and ensure their preservation; to provide online access to selected historical resources that support research, teaching, and learning; and to engage the Jewish and Las Vegas communities in appreciation of this rich history.

The Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project launched in July 2014 when the UNLV University Libraries received a one-year grant through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered by the Nevada State Library and Archives. Within the first year, the UNLV University Libraries worked with community partners to collect and digitize oral histories and historical documents pertaining to the Jewish community. In subsequent years of the project (2015-2017), the UNLV University Libraries continued to collect oral histories and historical items, digitize materials for online access, and build the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project portal, a website that acts as a gateway to primary sources about the Southern Nevada Jewish experience and includes oral history transcripts, audio clips, newspapers, historical documents, photographs, scrapbooks, videos, and more. To provide additional context about these sources, the site also features biographies, organizational histories, descriptions of themes, blog posts, and a timeline.