Oral history interview with Marcy and Jack Simon conducted by Barbara Tabach on May 16, 2018 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Marcy and Jack discuss their personal backgrounds and meeting one another in Los Angeles, California in 1964. Jack talks about his work building homes in the San Fernando Valley, earning a contractors license, and how Marcy became involved in the contracting business. The two then recall the formation of their electrical company, Expo-Tech Electrical and Plumbing, being the electrical contractors for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and moving their business headquarters to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1994. Later, Marcy and Jack recall their involvement in the Las Vegas Jewish community and the Jewish Federation (now known as Jewish Nevada). The two describe purchasing Commercial Casino in Elko, Nevada and selling their casino operations in 2005. Lastly, they discuss their involvement with the Jewish Family Services Agency.
Archival Collection
Early Days poster consists of photographs of various people. Top left photo labeled: "February 1979 Edythe Katz (Yarchever) organizes new Holocaust Education Committee of JFLV [Jewish Federation of Las Vegas]" had a piece of paper stuck behind it with identification of people in photo: "Edythe _ _ Ralph Cadualla _ _ Karla _ Dwayne, Augi Orci, Frank Lamping" (handwriting is difficult to read, names may be misspelled). Additional people also identified in the other photographs include Lillian Kronberg, Carolyn Stewart, and Franklin Littel.
Oral history interview with Phyllis Friedman conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 02, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview Friedman talks about first coming to Las Vegas, Nevada to work for the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas (now Jewish Nevada). Then she discusses what made the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) work unique and about ADL’s programming fighting cyberbullying. The interview finishes with her talking about work in addressing and combatting anti-Semitism and listing other influential Jewish organizations working in Las Vegas.
Archival Collection
Press Release titled "Human Rights Proclaimed" from the Clark County School District.
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Part of an interview with Elliot Karp on December 17, 2014. In this clip, Karp talks about his vision of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas as a tent under which all Jewish people can find a place to thrive.
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Philip Engel is a Las Vegas CPA and was president of the Las Vegas Jewish Federation from 1983-1984. Engel was born in New York and educated at the
University of Illinois and University of California Los Angeles where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Engel came to Southern Nevada in 1950
as part of a professional team responsible for installing a state-of-the-art- accounting system for the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino. Engel stayed in
Person
Collection is comprised of scrapbooks from 1948 to 2009 documenting the career of Las Vegas, Nevada lawyer Neil Galatz, his family, and his involvement with the local Jewish community. Contents include news clippings, photographs, event programs, and other ephemera.
Archival Collection
In this interview, Mimi Katz discusses growing up in the Boston area and her schooling, and moving to Washington, D.C. working as a physiotherapist. She returned to Boston and met her husband, and she talks about moving to Las Vegas and adjusting to life here. They became involved at Temple Beth Sholom, and Mimi worked as a conventions coordinator at the Sands and the Sahara. She discusses moving around in Las Vegas from an apartment to a house in the John S. Park neighborhood, working for the Jewish Federation, and helping to develop the Holocaust education program with Edythe Katz, conducting oral history interviews with survivors. She continued working at the Convention Center in the 1980s, and is involved in the Lou Ruvo Center.
Everyone knows her as Mimi. She was born Miriam Green to immigrant parents in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1926. As a youngster she danced, excelled at school and enjoyed an abundance of sports. To pay for her higher education at Massachusetts School of Physiotherapy she worked at Raytheon Manufacturing. In 1957 she married George Katz who swept her away to their honeymoon in Las Vegas. It's a story that she loves to recall-they never left. She sent for her things and energetically settled in to her new hometown and marriage. Mimi found employment with the Clark County School District, began having children (three daughters), and making fast new friends. Many of these friends were from the founding days of Temple Beth Sholom, which roots her to the history of the local Jewish community. In addition, for a decade she worked in community relations for the Jewish Federation. She valued community activism and volunteered over the years for many organizations; such as Easter Seals, Jewish War Veterans, Parent Teachers Association and the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and many more organizations over the subsequent decades.
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