A group of men from the Las Vegas Jewish Community Center are dressed in women's dresses and hats, possibly for a fundraising event. Seated L-R: Kay Wallerstein, Louis Mack, Dave Zenoff, Al Goot, and Adam Gobel. Standing L-R: "Doc" Knoller, Dave Messing, Ben Rosenfeld, unidentified, and Jerry Mack.

Gertrude (n?e Rightman) Rudiak was born in 1915 in North Dakota to Russian immigrants. She grew up in Wisconsin until 1924. That was the year the family drove to California via the Yellowstone Trail, a dusty, undeveloped road marked by yellow stones. In Los Angeles, her father practiced chiropractic, a holistic approach to well-being for which there was little knowledge at the time. Gertrude earned her music degree at University of California at Berkeley; a decision that did not lead to a career. She then attended a business college and got a job as a social worker in Northern California. In 1941, she met and soon married George Rudiak. It was the advent of World War II. George enlisted in the service and was assigned to Las Vegas Gunnery School (Nellis Air Force Base.) Since he had a law degree from University of California at Berkeley and passed the Nevada Bar exam, he found supplemental employment with local attorneys. Las Vegas became the Rudiaks? permanent home where they raised their five children. In this interview Gertrude recalls the stories of coming to live in Las Vegas of the 1940?s: their phone number was 1-2-3; the neighborhood they lived in longest being Scotch 80s and being part of the secular and Jewish communities.

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.