Interview with Myra Berkovits, Susan Dubin and Doug Unger of the Holocaust Resource Center. In this interview, the group discusses the beginnings of what is now the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center. Edythe Katz-Yarchever is discussed as the catalyst for establishing the center and getting others involved with the Governor's Advisory Council on Education Relating to the Holocaust. Berkovits talks about her role as a liason for Holocaust education in the Clark County School District and the student-teacher conferences held each year with funding from Sheldon Adelson. Unger discusses expanding the outreach to the Washoe County School District with assistance from Atlantis Hotel (Reno, Nev.) owner, John Farahi and Judy Mack. They talk about the previous locations of the Holocaust Resource Center on Maryland Parkway, then Renaissance Drive, and the affiliation with the Jewish Federation and the Jewish Family Service Agency. After funding and personnel issues around 2011, the advisory council and the library went through a re-structuring and hired Susan Dubin who organized and catalogued the library collection. The library is now accredited by the Association of Jewish Libraries.
The Cupid's Wedding Chapel sits at the north east corner of East Hoover Avenue at 827 South Las Vegas Boulevard. Information about the sign is available in the Southern Nevada Neon Survey Data Sheet. Site address: 827 S Las Vegas Blvd Sign owner: Bellevue Holdings Sign details: The original construction of this building was in 1950. This chapel is known for their weddings with Elvis Presley, James Brown and Johnny Cash impersonators. Sign condition: 5- The sign is in very good condition with bright colored graphics with little/no fading Sign form: Pylon Sign-specific description: This sign has a white steel beam as its base. The shape of their sign is a red heart with a white arrow going through it. The red heart portion of the sign has a red steel sign box within this is a back lit red plastic sign with white font on it. Surrounding this sign is exterior skeletal neon that illuminates red at night time. The font on their sign states "Cupid's Wedding Chapel" with the word Cupid in a bubble cursive font and the "Wedding Chapel" portion in a white block font. Surrounding these letters are white hearts as well as an image of Cupid shooting a love arrow. The white arrow that shoots through the heart sign showcases flashing incandescent light bulbs. Sign - type of display: Neon, incandescent and plastic backlit sign Sign - media: Steel and plastic Sign - non-neon treatments: Plastic backlit sign Sign animation: Flasher for incandescent light bulbs Sign environment: This location is a few blocks south of Fremont Street on Las Vegas Blvd. This chapel has other wedding chapels near it as well as the city courthouse and a few antique shops. Sign - date of installation: This sign has been up since at least 2007. Sign - thematic influences: The heart and arrow is symbolic to depict love and Cupid specifically, which helps showcase the theme and name of this location. Sign - artistic significance: Chapels perpetuate Las Vegas as the Marriage capital of the world as well as maintaining their Neon Signs really pays tribute to Las Vegas' vintage culture. Survey - research locations: Cupid's Chapel website http://www.cupidswedding.com/, Asessor's Page, Top 20 chapels in Vegas website https://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/top-20- vegas-wedding- chapels-1018.html , history channel website http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of- valentines- day/pictures/valentines-day/cupids- wedding-chapel- in-las- vegas Survey - research notes: The Cupid's Wedding Chapel sign was showcased on History. Com discussing Valentine's Day Weddings, and they gave the number that there were 2.2 million marriages in the U.S. in 2007 and 126,354 took place in Nevada. http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of- valentines- day/pictures/valentines-day/cupids- wedding-chapel- in-las- vegas Survey - other remarks: They were ranked 5 on the top 20 chapels to get married at here in Vegas. https://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/top-20- vegas-wedding- chapels-1018.html Surveyor: Emily Fellmer Survey - date completed: 2017-09-09 Sign keywords: Steel; Plastic; Backlit; Incandescent; Flashing; Neon; Pole sign
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).
The Black Experience in Southern Nevada Oral History Project features a core set of twelve interviews donated to the UNLV Libraries in the early 1970s. In 1978 the UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives received a grant to edit and transcribe the interviews from the U. S. Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and distributed by the Nevada State Library. The project was completed by Elizabeth Nelson Patrick between 1978 and 1979 with an abstract of the interviews distributed statewide.