Oral history interview with Michael and Susan Baller conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 16, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Michael discusses moving to Las Vegas, Nevada as a teenager in the 1950s, and opening Deluxe Hand Laundry and Cleaners on Main Street. The Ballers share stories about working in the dry cleaning industry and growing up in the Las Vegas Jewish community.
Oral history interview with Bernard and Barbara Kaufman conducted by Barbara Tabach on October 27, 2014 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, the Kaufmans reflect upon their upbringing in St. Louis, Missouri, where they met and married, and making the decision to move to Las Vegas, Nevada. They discuss the experience of running their stores and the impact on business as the retail environment changed over the years. The Kaufmans also talk about their involvement with the Jewish community, including B’nai B’rith and Sisterhood, and how it has grown over the years. They also discuss the impact of the Jewish community members in gaming as well as other sectors, and the increase of congregations over the decades.
Interview with Elaine Galatz by Barbara Tabach on April 22, 2015. In this interview, Galatz talks about growing up in Wisconsin. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she was an English major and active in Hillel and the Sigma Delta Tau sorority. She met her husband, Neil, while traveling through Las Vegas on several occasions, and sparks finally flew when she visited him in Tucson on a whim. She describes Neil's background in law, moving to Las Vegas together, and her job teaching second grade. She describes the small Jewish community in the 1960 including the Katzes, Brookmans, Freys, Molaskys and Greenspuns, and the current direction of the Jewish Federation. Galatz discusses raising her children, some of the cases that Neil worked on, their group of friends, and her love of horses.
Elaine Galatz was raised on a farm outside Madison, Wisconsin. Her father was a Russian immigrant father and her mother a young American born bride. Her father died when she was a teenager and her mother remarried a man who enjoyed gambling and that would lead her to first encounter with Las Vegas. Las Vegas would coincidentally become the center of her life when she and her husband of 51 years, Neil Galatz moved here in 1961. Elaine taught school briefly and worked in Neil's successful law firm for a number of years. Neil was a significant litigator in the MGM fire and PEPCON explosion cases. The couple also shared in the growth of Las Vegas Jewish community. Elaine served as Jewish Federation president, the second woman to hold that office. Among their favorite shared family activities was a love of Morgan horses, which continues to present day for Elaine.