Dedee (DaVeen) Nave was born November 09, 1948 in Indianapolis, Indiana to David and Virginia Maurer and has a sister, Marilyn Maurer MacCollum. Their mother was a convert to Judaism who instilled them with a solid Judeo-Christian foundation. When Nave became the bride of a mixed marriage, she raised her daughter, Alisa, in the Jewish faith.
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.
Jon Sparer is an architect in Las Vegas, Nevada who has worked on numerous hotels and casinos. He moved to Las Vegas in July 1981 and worked for the architecture firm Rissman and Rissman before joining Marnell Corrao. After briefly retiring in 1999, Sparer opened his own architecture firm and was contacted by Congregation Ner Tamid (of which he was a casual member) to design their new temple in Green Valley. He was also the architect for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (“The Center”) in Las Vegas.
Hershel Brooks was born December 3, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised in an orthodox Jewish household, along with his four siblings, and attended Jewish community schools before pursuing his rabbinical studies. He studied at TelsheYeshiva in Cleveland, Torah Vodaath in New York, and Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
Oral history interview with David and Heidi Straus conducted by Barbara Tabach on November 06, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. The Straus family talks about growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Rancho Nevada Estates neighborhood, and changes in the city since the 1960s. David and Heidi talk about their parents and their careers as a lawyer and business owner, respectively.