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Transcript of interview with Suzie Chenin by Barbara Tabach, September 29, 2015

Date

2015-09-25

Description

In this interview, Suzie discusses growing up in Las Vegas, with a strong community of friends, particularly within Temple Beth Sholom. She also talks about her real estate career, both in residential and commercial properties, highlighting some of the successes and challenges. She describes her working relationship with Milton Schwartz, as well her time working with the Greenspuns while selling advertising at the Las Vegas Sun.

Suzie Chenin was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in August of 1949. The next year, her parents, Joseph and Irene Chenin, moved the family to Las Vegas. Her father, a dentist, was stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, becoming the first Jewish dentist in the state ? and only the thirtieth overall. After graduating from Las Vegas High School, Suzie attended Arizona State University. However, she quit school and moved to Los Angeles where she got a job with a large real estate developer. This was her first foray into the industry. A few years later, back in Las Vegas, Suzie got her real estate license, eventually starting her own brokerage firm, Chenin and Associates.

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Annual report from Congregation Ner Tamid, 2008-2009

Date

2008 to 2009

Archival Collection

Description

Annual report from Congregation Ner Tamid, 2008-2009

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Annual report from Congregation Ner Tamid, 2009-2010

Date

2009 to 2010

Archival Collection

Description

Annual report from Congregation Ner Tamid, 2009-2010

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Transcript of interview with Adele Baratz and Florence Frost by Barbara Tabach, May 19, 2015

Date

2015-05-19

Description

In this oral history interview, Adele Baratz and Florence Frost discuss their experiences as members of the Las Vegas Jewish community, particularly as it has evolved and grown over the decades.

Adele Baratz and Florence Frost discuss their experiences as members of the Las Vegas Jewish community, particularly as it has evolved and grown over the decades. As active members of the Temple Beth Sholom congregation, the two recall others that made significant contributions to the local Jewish community as well as programs that strengthened Jewish life, including Women?s League, Fifty-five Plus and the Hebrew Day School. In addition, Adele and Florence recall efforts to pressure the Clark County School District to accommodate absences for the High Holidays. Adele (Salton) Baratz was born August 11, 1926, to Russian immigrant parents. The family moved to Las Vegas when Adele was two years old, making her the longest residing Jewish resident in Las Vegas. Adele graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1944, and then attended nursing school at Baltimore?s Sinai Hospital, from which she graduated in 1947. While visiting a friend in Philadelphia, Adele met her husband, and the couple lived there for a few years. When the couple divorced, Adele returned to Las Vegas with her children, and eventually also returned to nursing. She retired from Sunrise Hospital in 1991, after 17 years. Florence (Levine) Frost was born March 24, 1929 in Brooklyn, New York. She married Robert L. Levine in 1949, and the two had three daughters. In 1960, Robert?s work as a decorator brought the couple to Las Vegas. Not long after moving, she joined Temple Beth Sholom, where she worked as an executive secretary for two years. It was at temple, as members of Women?s League, that Florence and Adele met. Florence was a two-term president of the Women's League beginning in 1970; established the Fifty-Five Plus Club for seniors; and served on the congregation's board of directors for many years. Florence?s other leadership roles in the Jewish community include: chair of the Anti-Defamation League committee of B'nai B'rith, president of the National Council of Jewish Women, and president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Brandeis National Committee (2010-2011).

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Biographical essay by Sidney Barouch, 2014

Date

2014

Description

Sidney Barouch describes his experience during World War II living in Tunis, Tunisia, which was a French colony. Barouch discusses the facets of the war front in northern Africa, and the experiences of his family as Jews and business owners.

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Transcript of interviews with Edythe Katz-Yarchever by Claytee White, 2000-2005

Date

2000-12-09
2003-02-11
2003-03-11
2005-12-06

Description

Transcript of interviews with Edythe Katz-Yarchever by Claytee White over the course of several sessions in 2000, 2003 and 2005. In the interviews, Katz-Yarchever discusses her life in Las Vegas, owning theaters with her husband, Lloyd Katz, and the strides they made in civil rights. She talks about her service in Civil Defense and the National Guard, and moving to various places, then working in California and meeting her husband, Lloyd. The Katzes became involved in the community in various ways with Operation Independence and Holocaust education. About a decade after Lloyd's death, Edythe married Judge Gilbert Yarchever.

Edythe Katz-Yarvhever was born in Boston, a second generation American whose grandparents left Russia the century before. Edythe completed finishing school at the start of World War II and worked various jobs at home before joining the Civil Defense, and later, the National Guard. She moved to Maryland and got a job as a secretary at Edgewood Arsenal, then transferred to Cushing General Hospital to assist a Marine Corps neurologist, who was also a Jewish refugee. Towards the end of the war, she is transferred to an Army hospital in Hawaii, and thus began the rest of her life on the West Coast. When the war ended, Edythe sailed to California and worked various jobs in Los Angeles: in the secretarial pool at MGM Studios, for a casting agency and for a hotel magazine. Edythe met Lloyd Katz in San Francisco, and the two were married after a short courtship. The couple lived in San Francisco before moving to Las Vegas in 1951, where they took over the management of the Huntridge, Palace and Fremont theaters, then leased by Edythe's parents. The Katzes took a stand to desegregate their theaters, allowing black customers to sit with white patrons. Edythe and Lloyd became active in the city's Civil Rights Movement, including work with Operation Independence and the NAACP. Edythe started organizations like Volunteers for Education and Junior Art League, and directed an interfaith, interracial preschool. Lloyd would frequently open up their theaters to organizations to hold fundraisers, free-of-charge. Edythe was extremely active in the local Jewish community, including opening the city's first Jewish gift shop, serving as sisterhood president at her synagogue and starting the Jewish Reporter. She later founded a library for Holocaust education as well as assisted the school district's development of curriculum and teacher training relating to the Holocaust. Lloyd Katz passed away in 1986, and in 1995, Edythe married Gilbert Yarchever. Edythe and Lloyd's community service work was honored with the naming of their school, the Edythe and Lloyd Katz Elementary School, where Edythe still remains active.

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Transcript of interview with Stanley Schwartz by Carol Schwartz, March 1, 1980

Date

1980-03-01

Description

Interview with Stanley Schwartz by Carol Schwartz on March 1, 1980. Stanley talks about coming to Las Vegas in 1951 to open a clothing business on Main Street, Schwartz Brothers Clothing. He compares the business district of the 1950s to the district in 1980, and advertising opportunities in the newspapers and on the radio. Schwartz talks about suit styles and changing preferences of buyers, and moving the store to Second Street, then Fremont Street, then to Maryland Square Shopping Center. In 1970, he changed the focus of the clothing store to "big and tall" and talks about the importance of customer service in retaining customers. He mentions Al Benedict and Herb Tobman as people he admired.

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Transcript of interview with Lt. Harry Fagel by Barbara Tabach, April 15, 2016 and January 13, 2017

Date

2016-04-15 to 2017-01-13

Description

In the signature line of Harry Fagel?s emails is a reads: Be the light in dark spaces. This illumines the person that Harry is both as a police officer and a poet in Las Vegas. Harry is native Las Vegan, who has served the community with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for nearly 30 years. He currently is a police lieutenant serving in Laughlin, Nevada. In addition, Fagel is a respected poet, writing both for the public and on commission. He performs in the local poetry scene. He also has showcased his poetry in two published books, released an album, and is a recipient of the Hilliard Endowment Grant from the University Nevada, Reno. Fagel is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and currently lives in Henderson with his wife, Leilani and two sons, Sam and Jake. In this interview, Fagel discusses his family background, how his grandparents came to live in Las Vegas in the 1950s, as well as his relationships with both his mother and father. He recalls his early jobs which included working for his cousin Freddie Glusman?s restaurant Piero?s and for Circus Circus-long before becoming a policeman. His involvement with the Jewish community started young and he shares how it has evolved over the decades. In addition, Fagel reflects upon his career as a law enforcement officer, the progressiveness of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and changes in relations between the police and communities, both locally and nationally. Lastly, Fagel talks in detail about his poetry, its dominant themes, and the local poetry scene.

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Transcript of interview with Jerome Countess and Dorothy Eisenberg by Barbara Tabach, October 28, 2014

Date

2014-10-28

Description

Interview with Jerry Countess and Dorothy Eisenberg by Barbara Tabach on October 28, 2014. Countess discusses his childhood and military life. He became involved in the United Jewish Appeal in Las Vegas and started the Jewish Reporter newspaper. Dorothy Eisenberg is also involved in the interview to discuss the Jewish Federation and the Jewish community.

Jerome Countess, known as Jerry to most, was born on December 22, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in the borough's Jewish neighborhood, and he developed a reputation for being a skillful handball player and a great dancer. Though he was not allowed to enlist in the U.S. Coast Guard due to colorblindness, Jerry was eventually drafted into the army during World War II. With very minimal combat training, Jerry was sent to North Africa as an infantryman, and was later stationed in Italy. After three years of service, Jerry returned home and married his childhood sweetheart, Rachel, in 1945. Using the G.I. Bill, he enrolled at New York University to study writing, though he quit just shy of graduation as his wife was expecting. After briefly working in the television broadcasting industry, Jerry landed a job with the United Jewish Appeal. In 1975, following in his desire to move west, Jerry took the job of executive director of the Combined Jewish Appeal in Las Vegas, what would soon be renamed the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas. Under his leadership, the federation started the Jewish Family Service as well as The Jewish Reporter, a monthly publication to promote engagement of the Jewish community. Jerry served as the executive director of the federation for many years, serving at the pleasure of many board members and presidents, including the first female federation president, Dorothy Eisenberg.

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Transcript of interview with Sonja Saltman by Barbara Tabach, August 18, 2015

Date

2015-08-18

Description

Included in this oral history are reminiscences of Sonja Saltman's personal non-Jewish heritage in Austria, the importance of her grandmother in her life, and how she recalls becoming part of the Jewish community.

Sonja Saltman is a psychologist and philanthropist in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is executive director and co-founder of the Existential Humanistic Institute, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California that offers training in existential-humanistic therapy and theory. In 2003 Sonja and her husband Michael Saltman founded the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) William S. Boyd School of Law. The Saltman Center is focused on research, teaching, and public service related to "the advanced study of the nature of conflict and how to resolve it." A native of Austria, Sonja Saltman also serves as the Honorary Consul for Austria in Las Vegas. The Saltmans are involved with multiple charitable organizations and initiatives, both locally and abroad. Sonja Saltman has served on the boards of the Anti-Defamation League, Nevada Women's Philanthropy, and the Black Mountain Institute. Projects that the couple has supported include the rebuilding of homes and bridges is Bosnia, and Streetball Hafla, a basketball program to improve relations between Jewish and Arab teenagers in Israel. In 2014 Sonja and Michael Saltman were recognized as Distinguished Nevadans by the Nevada System of Higher Education. Included in this oral history are reminiscences of her personal non-Jewish heritage in Austrian, the importance of her grandmother in her life, and how she recalls becoming part of the Jewish community.

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