Oral history interview with Rabbi Sanford Akselrad conducted by Barbara Tabach on October 29, 2014 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview Rabbi Akselrad describes his rabbinical training, coming to Las Vegas, Nevada, becoming the rabbi at Congregation Ner Tamid in 1988, and the growth of the congregation.
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Oral history interview with Rabbi Sanford Akselrad conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 7, 2018 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Rabbi Sanford Akselrad discusses the response of the Jewish community of Congregation Ner Tamid to the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. He discusses the healing service he led the day after the shooting, how the community paid respect to the victims, and the concert held to raise money. In addition to the actions of the Jewish community, Rabbi Akselrad discusses the congregation's work with the interfaith community to heal from this tragedy.
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Oral history interviews with Rabbi Sanford Akselrad conducted by Barbara Tabach on May 29, 2020 and June 02, 2020 for The Great Pause: Las Vegas Chronicles of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Akselrad begins by discussing his early childhood, his family history, and why he moved to Las Vegas in 1988. He recalls the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, how people reacted at first, and how each age group was effected. Akselrad then explains the process of working from home, the advantages and disadvantages, and the changes he has experienced. He also talks about the difficulties of getting people together, businesses closing, and the unemployment rate. Lastly, Akselrad elaborates the relationship between Reformed Judaism and science.
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Scott Dockswell, Rabbi Sanford Akselrad (sitting), and Gil Shaw working on a computer.
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Oral history interview with Rabbi Sanford Akselrad conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 7, 2018 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Rabbi Sanford Akselrad discusses the response of the Jewish community of Congregation Ner Tamid to the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. He discusses the healing service he led the day after the shooting, how the community paid respect to the victims, and the concert held to raise money. In addition to the actions of the Jewish community, Rabbi Akselrad discusses the congregation's work with the interfaith community to heal from this tragedy.
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Rabbi Sanford Akselrad in the Joyce & Jerome Mack Sanctuary at Congregation Ner Tamid on the Greenspun Campus for Jewish Life, Learning & Spiritual Renewal.
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Rabbi Sanford Akselrad in the Joyce & Jerome Mack Sanctuary at Congregation Ner Tamid on the Greenspun Campus for Jewish Life, Learning & Spiritual Renewal.
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Rabbi Sanford Akselrad discusses Project Ezra, an employment program he established during the recession in conjunction with the Jewish Family Service Agency.
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Sanford Akselrad is the rabbi at Congregation Ner Tamid. In this interview he describes his rabbinical training, coming to Las Vegas, and the growth of the congregation.
More inclined in his youth to pursue a career as a scientist than rabbi, Sanford Akselrad (1957- ) became the rabbi at Congregation Ner Tamid in 1988. Turning his tenure, Rabbi Akselrad has lead the congregation through its move from Emerson to Street to its permanent home on Green Valley Parkway and I-215 and shares a fun story about buying desks and chairs from the Clark County School District. He talks about many of the milestones including: Project Ezra which he started during the 2008 recession to help Jewish community members find jobs; the NextGen program which was initiated to bring young adults in their twenties and thirties back to the temple. For over twenty years Rabbi Akselrad was a member of the board of the Nevada Governor?s Council on Holocaust education, a topic that was the focus of his rabbinical thesis. He was the founding president of the Clark County Board of Rabbis and has served on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, Jewish Family Services, and the Humana Hospital Pastoral Advisory Board. He was also the chair of the Federation?s Community Relations Council (CRC). Rabbi Akselrad is a board member of the Anti-Defamation League Nevada region office and the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. Sanford Akselrad was born on October 6, 1957 in Oakland, California and raised in Palo Alto. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles and then went to graduate school at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. He spent the first year of his graduate program in Israel, the next two in Los Angeles, and the final two years in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rabbi Akselrad met his wife Joni in Reno, Nevada and married her during his third year of rabbinical school. The couple has two children, CJ and Sam. After his ordination in 1984, Rabbi Akselrad was associate rabbi of Temple Israel in Columbus, Ohio, one of the largest Reform congregations in the Midwest. His choice of career was inspired by his father, Sidney Akselrad, who was a prominent rabbi involved in social justice issues and the Civil Rights Movement. Sanford Akselrad has followed his father?s example of community involvement, both in Las Vegas and on a national level: he served on the board of the National Conference of Community and Justice (NCJJ), he was chair of the NCJJ's Inter-faith Council, and he is active in the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ).
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