Oral history interview with Jonathan Sparer conducted by Stefani Evans and Claytee D. White on August 29, 2016 for the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. Sparer discusses his involvement in the Jewish, and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) communites, and his career as an architect in Las Vegas, Nevada. He also talks about working on projects that included The Mirage Hotel and Casino, the Congregation Ner Tamid, and The Center (The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada).
It was a scorching Fourth of July, when Norma (n?e Adler) and Leon Friedman rolled into their new home of Las Vegas in 1973. Nevertheless, they were content with leaving Gary, Indiana behind, and starting fresh with the family?s new ownership of Walker Furniture. Norma recalls her first stop in checking out Las Vegas was to visit the synagogue ? Temple Beth Sholom being the only option. Her oldest son would soon become a bar mitzvah. Feeling good about that, she and her sister-in-law who was also relocating to Las Vegas for the furniture business, searched for new homes. Norma settled into the community through volunteer work as well as through employment outside the family business. She worked in the real estate briefly and in a jewelry store at the Dunes. A natural organizer, she immersed herself in religious and civic organizations including the Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Service Agency, and volunteering at Selma Bartlett Elementary School in Henderson. Norma shares stories of her Jewish heritage and upbringing in Pittsburgh, the decision to move to Las Vegas, making fast friendships during her life in Las Vegas and the joy she has in traveling the world with Leon, who passed in 2004. In 2017, Norma was honored by the Jewish Family Service Agency.
Sari Aizley was born January 10, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she was in a Jewish minority. She moved to Las Vegas, Nevada as a single mother who worked for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where she also earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees. Aizley worked for the Jewish Family Services, American Civil Liberties Union, sold advertising for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and starting the memorable CLASS! Newspaper with her son, David Phillips, and her husband Paul. For 16 years, CLASS!
Allen Brewster (1921-2009) was the founder of King David Mortuary in Las Vegas, Nevada. Born in Yonkers, New York, Brewster grew up during the Great Depression and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. An executive at Palm Mortuary since 1978, he recognized the need for traditional Jewish burial services and helped to develop Las Vegas' first Jewish burial garden. Brewster founded King David Mortuary in 2001 and also helped create the Chesed Indigent Burial Fund, which assists families who cannot otherwise afford Jewish burial services.
In this essay, Jerry Countess provides narrative context for a demographic study of the Jewish population in Las Vegas, and addresses the services and community needs revealed by the study and the growing Jewish population.