In 1964, the year that Vincent Kethen was born, desegregation of Las Vegas schools began. Like many African-American children living in the Las Vegas Westside neighborhood, Vincent was bused out of his neighborhood in third grade to attend a white school. In his case, this meant attending John S. Park Elementary and later other predominantly white schools. He talks about these experiences. John S. Park was a neighborhood of manicured lawns, while the school bus and the classroom were places fraught with fisticuffs. The experience of growing up during that era are recalled. Vincent provides a sense of that it was like to reside in his home neighborhood and the onslaught of the drug culture altered gang-lead neighborhoods. Being bused had positive results he explains, such as athletics, which served as an equalizer. For Vincent, a solid upbringing, which included love of church and the chance to attend college, encouraged him to make good decisions about his future. He received a four-year degree and he returned to Las Vegas to "give back." For over a decade and a half, her has coached young basketball players and helped them see their options for a brighter future than they might otherwise have seen.

Daisy Lee Miller talks about being born and raised as an only child in Louisiana before moving to Las Vegas in her 20s. For a time, Daisy worked in the powder room at the California Club. It was while she was employed here that she realized she wanted something better, and she wanted to be a good example tor her kids. Daisy began attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to get her degree. Daisy is very proud of the fact that she graduated from UNLV at the same time that her daughter graduated from high school. Family has always been very important to Daisy, and she enjoyed spending time with her children while they were growing up. Sundays always found Daisy and her children at church while other leisure-time activities included trips to the lake or Mt. Charleston. While going to school, Daisy worked at the Economic Opportunity Board in the family planning program. Following graduation, Daisy began working for the Clark County School District where she rapidly advanced

Jackie, n?e Brooks, Boiman was born in Brooklyn and raised in Levittown, New York. Although Jackie recalls her family?s Jewish observance as far less than strict, her religious connection began in the Levittown Jewish Center Sunday School and under the close relationship she had with her grandmother, who kept kosher and inspired her to do so. In her early twenties, Jackie worked in data reduction at Grumman Aerospace Corporation and the space program; was married and had her only child, Andee. After twelve years of marriage, Jackie divorced and relocated to Las Vegas, where her parents had moved earlier. In Las Vegas, job opportunities for a single mother were scant. Then after months of searching, she found her first job as a part time secretary for Temple Beth Sholom. Over the course of the next nearly fifteen years, Jackie would go on to work with almost every congregation and temple in Las Vegas, developing their youth programs and contributing to the growth of each one for 15 years. After a brief retirement, she had gone back to work as the first administration person for Touro University. In this interview, Jackie discusses at length her involvement with each of the temples, her experiences with being a single mother and living below the poverty line. She shares how her life has been changed through trials and tribulations but how her faithfulness and commitment to her mission had led her to the success she has today.

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.

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.

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).

Kerin Rodgers was born in 1936. She recounts her family history and stories of her youth growing up in Boston, MA, and shares how the family relocated to Seattle, WA in the mid-1940s. She talks about her enjoyment of theatrical arts and politics, and about being a resourceful divorced, single-mom and entrepreneur. In 1958 she opened a retail fashion store and modeling agency with a friend in Santa Monica, CA. Kerin had a knack for fashion and interior design that would assist her then and into the future. She also shares the story of arriving in Las Vegas as part of retail job with The Broadway stores in 1966—a two-week stint that seemed to have no ending. Her transition into Las Vegas included remarriage, a 1974 Keno win that enabled her to put down money on a home ( a house built by Paul Huffey) in the John S. Park neighborhood, and making close friends in the community. Her interview is sprinkled with tales of activities and personalities from the neighborhood's past and present. Kerin was involved with the Focus Youth House, speaks about First Fridays and art, as well as gives a perspective of police, criminal behaviors and changes in the neighborhood over the years. She hosted a local television show and enjoyed being a community activist.