Interview with Myra Berkovits by Barbara Tabach on August 21, 2014. In this interview, Berkovits talks about growing up and starting her teaching career in Chicago. When she moves to Las Vegas, Berkovits eventually purchases a dining concierge business, but returned to teaching, and is now involved with the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center.
Myra Berkovits was born Myra Mosse in 1944 in Chicago, Illinois. She became an elementary school teacher in Chicago before moving to Las Vegas in 1980. Myra has made contributions to Las Vegas in the public and private sectors. She owned several businesses then returned to teaching, heading to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) to renew her teaching license and later received her master's degree. After a year of teaching in multicultural education, Myra was then in charge of the school district's homeless program, seeing its growth from serving 1,200 to 6,000 students. Myra's other passion was for Holocaust education and she became one of six interviewers in the city for the Shoah Foundation, documenting survivors' stories. One interviewee, David Berkovits, would later become her husband of fifteen years. Myra's own Holocaust education was aided by powerful trips to Israel and Poland. She used these experiences to develop and lead student-teacher conferences and classroom curriculum for the whole state. Myra still serves at the Education Specialist at the Holocaust Resource Center.
The Governor’s Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust was established by the Nevada Legislature in 1989 under Nevada Revised Statute 233G. The duties of the Council are to develop educational programs for children and adults on issues related to the Holocaust, to create reports, and to advise public and private bodies throughout Nevada on Holocaust education. It is also responsible for its own fundraising, although some money is allocated by the legislature. The Council consists of eleven members appointed by the governor.
udy Mack is a Las Vegas, Nevada philanthropist and a Holocaust survivor. Judy Mack was born Judith Szrut on December 11, 1937 in Warsaw, Poland. She left Germany in 1949 and went to San Francisco, California with her grandmother. She married Ronald Mack (originally Makovsky) in 1956 and moved to Reno, Nevada with him in 1959. In 1990 the couple moved to Las Vegas. Judy Mack is a major supporter of the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center in Las Vegas, which is named in part after her and her husband.