David "Davie" Berman (1903-1957) was one of the pioneers of the casino business in Las Vegas, Nevada. Berman was born January 16, 1903 in Odessa, Ukraine and grew up in Ashley, North Dakota. He was named Donald at birth but later changed his name to David. By age 16 he ran the biggest bootlegging operation in Iowa, and was also involved with organized crime in New York City and Minneapolis.
Mervyn L. "Merv" Adelson (1929- ) is a co-founder of Lorimar Telepictures Corporation and a former Las Vegas, Nevada real estate developer. Adelson founded Paradise Development Company with Moe Dalitz, Irwin Molasky, and Allard Roen in Las Vegas in 1951. The partners built Sunrise Hospital, Boulevard Mall, residential neighborhoods, and several buildings for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. When Adelson's father died of cancer in 1978, he and Molasky decided to build Nathan Adelson Hospice in his honor.
Edward “Ed” Goldman was born March 19, 1951 in Rochester, New York and spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Israel as well as Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his first bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University and a second in Jewish Studies from the University of Judaism. Goldman later received a master’s degree in political science from California State University, and then a doctorate in education and higher administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, focusing on educational law.
Deanne Alterwitz-Stralser (née Friedman) was born January 1, 1931 in Hammond, Indiana, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom. Alterwitz-Stralser spent her childhood in Calumet City, just across the state line in Illinois, and was raised with a strong Jewish identity. At the age of sixteen, she met her husband, Oscar Alterwitz, at an Alpha Zadik Alpha (AZA) dance in Gary, Indiana, and the two were married in 1950.
Jerry Fox (1937- ) is a Las Vegas, Nevada businessman who owned Foxy Dog restaurant, several gift shops, Lasting Memories camera company, and Vegas Threadz wholesale embroidery company. He was born December 29, 1937, to Abe and Ellena Fox in Los Angeles, California. The Fox family moved to Las Vegas in February 1955, where Abe opened Foxy’s Delicatessen, the city’s first Jewish deli. After graduating from Las Vegas High School in 1956, Jerry Fox worked at Foxy's Deli for about ten years.
Robert D. "Bob" Fisher is a Las Vegas, Nevada broadcast personality and lobbyist. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and moved to Las Vegas to around 1992 when he was hired as the founding president and CEO of the Nevada Broadcasters Association (NVBA). During his 22 years as head of the NVBA, he produced and hosted Observations, a public affairs program broadcasted on radio and television throughout the state of Nevada.
Victor M.G. Chaltiel (1941-2014) was a prominent businessman and one-time mayoral candidate in Las Vegas, Nevada. Born in Tunis, Tunisia, Chaltiel completed his undergraduate degree in Paris and obtained a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) at the Harvard Business School. He had a long career as an executive in the health care industry, beginning with Baxter International and including leadership positions in the 1980s and 1990s at Salick Health Care, Total Pharmaceutical Care, and Total Renal Care Holdings.
Alexander Kuelchel, a survivor of the Holocaust, was born in Berlin, Germany to parents who originally came from Poland. He attended a Christian school until Adolf Hitler came into power, then he was moved to a private school that had a synagogue in the back.
Raymonde "Ray" Fiol was born August 22, 1936 in Germany. A Jewish Holocaust survivor whose parents were killed in Auschwitz, Fiol was hidden by a Christian family of Resistance fighters during her childhood in Nazi-occupied Paris, France. She married American serviceman Phil Fiol and left Paris in 1957. The couple lived in New York City, New York where she worked in inventory control. Fiol retired to Las Vegas, Nevada around 2003 and became active in the local Holocaust Survivors Group.