Chabad of Southern Nevada was established in 1990 by Rabbi Shea Harlig and his wife Dina Harlig. It is an outpost of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch organization that provides social services and educational programs for members of the Jewish community. Chabad of Southern Nevada is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and has six affiliated centers: Chabad of Summerlin, Chabad of Green Valley, Chabad of East-Or Bamidbar, Chabad of Southwest, Chabad Hebrew Center, and Chabad Student Services at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Leo Wilner (1917- 1998) was born in Brooklyn, New York. Leo graduated from Jefferson High School in New York and for two years attended school to be a rabbi. He quit to work and help his family. In the early 1960s, friends talked Wilner into moving to Las Vegas where he became executive director Temple Beth Sholom.
Bobby Morris (born Boruch Moishe Stempelman) was born June 30, 1927 and immigrated from Wilno, Poland to Brooklyn, New York in 1937. His passion for drumming was ignited soon after, and he began shining shoes to pay for drumming lessons from Henry Adler. At the age of thirteen, Morris got his first gig playing at the Musicians Union in the Catskill Mountains during the summer. He soon developed a career playing jazz around town with different artists while simultaneously studying at the Manhattan School of Music.
Rabbi Mel Hecht was born July 8, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of five, his family moved to Miami, Florida where they had a large, extended Jewish family, complete with relatives who were hazzans and mohels. Soon after moving to Florida, his parents bought a hotel in Hialeah, a city 10 miles outside of Miami, where Hecht spent the remainder of his childhood.
Jack Kaufman (September 3, 1935-August 2, 2015) was a Las Vegas lawyer and judge. Kaufman was born in Cleveland September 3, 1935. He graduated from the University of Arizona where he earned his Bachelors in engineering. He also attended Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah where he received his Masters in business. Kaufman completed his education at the California Western School of law where he was awarded with a Juris Doctorate. Kaufman moved to Las Vegas in 1965 as a government lawyer for the Nevada Test Site.
Mel Exber (1923-2002) was an innovative sports book operator and the longtime owner of the Las Vegas Club casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Exber was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 3, 1923. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II and moved to Las Vegas in 1947. With his business partner, Jackie Gaughan, Exber opened the Saratoga Sports Book in 1953. Exber bought the Las Vegas Club in 1960, and also owned interests in the El Cortez, Plaza, Club Bingo, Western, Nevada, Gold Spike, and Barbary Coast.