Search Results
Transcript of interview with Thelma Coblentz by Judith Chavez, February 17, 1980
Date
Archival Collection
Description
On February 17, 1980, Judith Chavez interviewed Thelma Coblentz (born 1911 in New Jersey) about her experiences in Southern Nevada. Coblentz first talks about her move to Lovelock, Nevada, where her husband provided medical care as one of the first physicians in the small town. She later talks about her move to Las Vegas and some of the services she helped to provide at Nellis Air Force Base. Coblentz later describes Downtown Las Vegas, specifically the development of the casinos and shopping businesses. She later talks about the rainstorms and dust storms that the city would experience before recalling some of the entertainers who would perform on the Las Vegas Strip. The interview concludes with a discussion on the first physicians in Las Vegas and the increasing population of the city.
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Minutes from Temple Beth Sholom Board of Directors meetings, January 1957 - April 1963
Date
Archival Collection
Description
The meeting minutes of the board of directors of Temple Beth Sholom, then known as the Jewish Community Center of Las Vegas, Inc., include the proceedings of meetings held from 1957 to 1963.
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Transcript of interview with Jane Greenspun Gale by Barbara Tabach January 31 and February 9, 2018
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Jane Greenspun Gale-actor, activist, writer, magazine publisher, philanthropist, and farmer- has filled her life with accomplishments such as the Animal Foundation and Springs Preserve. It has also been a life filled with adventure - from “looking for John Lennon” during her time living and studying acting in London to learning to raise chickens on the acres of the Gilcrease Farm she owns with husband and photographer Jeff Gale. Everyone calls her Janie. Born Jane in 1949, she is the third of four children born to community leaders Barbara and Hank Greenspun. In this oral history, Janie captures the fun of growing up in Las Vegas under the watching eye of Hank. As a teen she and her friends cruised Fremont Street. Several years later she wanted to be arrested protesting the Atomic Test Site, when Hank diverted her into reporting about the event instead. Her Jewish foundation was at Temple Beth Sholom, where her parents were among the founding members. As the Jewish population grew, the tastes in synagogues grew to reflect the change. When Janie’s children preferred the Reform approach at Congregation Ner Tamid, a new family tradition began. She is proud of her background and shares loving stories of time spent with her grandparents as a child and pride in the heroic and dramatic story behind the naming of Hank Greenspun Plaza in Israel. Even her love story with Jeff is a tale made for movies. It unfolds in this engaging oral history interview along with anecdotes that are plucked from her personal history and preserve a reflection of growing up in Las Vegas, one of the Greenspun family of local fame.
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Transcript of interview with Kenny Epstein by Barbara Tabach, May 1, 2015
Date
Archival Collection
Description
On a pleasant spring evening at sundown in April 2017, a Pop-Up Shabbat draws a crowd of Jews to the Jackie Gaughan Parkway at the El Cortez Hotel & Casino. Proudly, and quietly, watching from the sideline is Kenny Epstein, owner of the El Cortez. He seeks no recognition, but is enjoying the gathering for Sabbath services and the music that will fill the air. Kenny Epstein is also a classic enthusiast of Las Vegas history. The nostalgia is evident as one walks through the casino and reinforced by the stories of a man who has experienced the city’s growth since moving here in 1959 at the age of 18. The timeline of Kenny’s teen years begins with his bar mitzvah in Chicago and a story of prizefighter Rocky Marciano giving a brief toast. When he was 15, his parents, Ike and Adele Epstein, took the family to visit Las Vegas. About three years later, his father became an executive at the Stardust. Kenny’s own imprint on Las Vegas history was just beginning. In this brief interview, he mentions an illustrious list of mentors and recalls many historic moments from the history of the Las Vegas Strip. All of which led to his ownership of The El Cortez—advertised as the longest continuously operating hotel/casino.
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Transcript of interview with Shelley Berkley by Barbara Tabach, February 13, 2015
Date
Archival Collection
Description
In this interview, Berkley shares her family history, from her great-grandparents? immigration to the United States to her immediate family?s own migration from New York to Las Vegas. She reflects upon her childhood experience in Las Vegas, including her varied leadership positions with Jewish organizations as well as at school, from junior high school through college. Berkley also talks about her involvement as an adult within the Jewish community and more broadly as a public servant, in all levels of government.
Former United States Democratic Congresswoman Shelley Berkley represented Nevada?s 1st Congressional District from 1999 to 2013, an area that includes most of Las Vegas. During her seven terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the district benefited from millions of dollars of federal funding for education, transportation, and other projects. She also successfully fought against storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Shelley Berkley was born Rochelle Levine in New York City in 1951 and moved to Las Vegas during junior high in 1963. She practiced law in Las Vegas and served in the Nevada Assembly for two years. She was also a member and vice chair of the Nevada University and Community College System Board of Regents. Berkley attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she served as student body president and graduated with honors in 1972 with a B.A. in political science. After obtaining her J.D. in 1976 from the University of San Diego, she returned to Las Vegas to practice law. From 1976 to 1979 Berkley was Deputy Director of the Nevada State Department of Commerce. She provided legal counsel to several casinos at various points in her career, served as national director of the American Hotel-Motel Association, and founded the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys and the Senior Law Project. In 1977 she married Frederic Berkley and had two children, Max and Sam. She remarried in 1999 to Dr. Lawrence Lehrner of Las Vegas, who also had two children from a previous marriage. Before being elected to Congress, Berkley served on the board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She continued her vocal support of Israel in Congress and was heavily involved in all matters related to the Middle East. She was a member of several committees, including: Foreign Affairs, Veterans Affairs, Ways and Means, Small Business, and Transportation. Building a new Veterans Administration medical complex in Southern Nevada and sponsoring many pieces of healthcare legislation are also among her accomplishments as a U.S. Representative. In 2013, she was appointed CEO and Senior Provost of the Touro College and University System?s Western Division.
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Transcript of interview with Henry Kronberg by Barbara Tabach, February 26, 2015 and April 13, 2015
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Interview with Henry Kronberg by Barbara Tabach in two sessions, February 26 and April 13, 2015. In the first session Kronberg talks about his childhood in Germany and Poland and his experience being imprisoned by the Gestapo, and transported to a concentration camp. He survived the Holocaust and met his wife, and they moved to the United States in 1946. He discusses being reunited with his sister in Las Vegas after decades of searching, and moved his family to Las Vegas in 1962. Kronberg talks about becoming involved with Jewish life here, and his wife, Lillian's involvement at Temple Beth Sholom. In the second session, Kronberg discusses purchasing Stoney's, a loan and pawn shop, including some of the clientele and merchandise. He also discusses other social and environmental concerns like anti-Semitism and water resources in Southern Nevada.
Henry Kronberg was born in 1920 and spent his early childhood in a town on the border of Poland and Germany, about 40 miles from Krakow. For years he felt uncomfortable telling his story of surviving the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Today his name is linked to the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center in Las Vegas. And in his soft-spoken manner, Henry recalls his ordeal of loss of family and survival during this most heinous of situations through backbreaking labor and ingenuity. At the end of the war, Henry met the love of his life, Lillian, also a survivor. The two married in 1946 in Frankfurt and immigrated to New Jersey where she had relatives. He describes their difficulties and the various jobs he held until becoming an excellent baker. Then in 1962 an interesting choice took him to a bar mitzvah in Canada. While there the dinner conversation lead him to a great discovery?his sister Lala had survived and was living in Las Vegas. Soon he moved his wife and daughter to Las Vegas. His first foray into business was with his brother-in-law. However, soon it was important to be independent and to control his own destiny. He purchased a going concern, Stoney's Pawn Shop, from Dr. Alexander Coblentz, one of the city's first doctors. He became the fourth owner of Stoney's and operated it until selling it to Steven Mack in 1998. Henry and his wife were active in the Jewish community. They joined Temple Beth Sholom and became fast friends with many of the early leaders of Las Vegas and became a respected member of the secular and Jewish communities.
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Transcript of interview with Gerald Gordon by Barbara Tabach, November 02, 2016
Date
Archival Collection
Description
In 1961, at the age of thirteen, Gerald ?Jerry? Gordon became a bar mitzvah. This typical coming of age celebration was unusual in that he had simultaneously studied in both his home state of California and his adopted home of Las Vegas, where he spent summers with his grandparents. 1961 is also the same year that the Gordons made Las Vegas their permanent home. Jerry graduated from Las Vegas High School, attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned his law degree from University of California, Los Angeles. His gregarious and trustworthy personality led him to career building steps in the legal community of Las Vegas that included illustrious names such as Louis Wiener, Jr., David Goldwater, Neil Galatz, and many others. His personal law specialty became bankruptcy, especially dealings with hotel/casinos. As a member of the Jewish community, Jerry?s energy and expertise to organize was instrumental in the construction of Congregation Ner Tamid, the reform synagogue, at its site on Valle Verde and I-215. It was a multi-year process and includes a vast array of stories?a cash donation from Moe Dalitz, finalization of receiving of a donation land from the Greenspun family during the High Holy Days, and the ongoing challenges of a building campaign during a recession. In addition, he explains that CNT included two unique negotiations: 1) a cell tower and 2) a solar field on the synagogue?s property. Jerry and his wife Yvonne met while attending UNLV. Yvonne taught math at various levels in the Clark County School District. They raised their two children, Sara and Jeffrey, in Las Vegas, and forged an important role together in Congregation Ner Tamid. In April 2017, they were among those honored for their work with the synagogue.
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