Sanford Akselrad is the rabbi at Congregation Ner Tamid. In this interview he describes his rabbinical training, coming to Las Vegas, and the growth of the congregation.
More inclined in his youth to pursue a career as a scientist than rabbi, Sanford Akselrad (1957- ) became the rabbi at Congregation Ner Tamid in 1988. Turning his tenure, Rabbi Akselrad has lead the congregation through its move from Emerson to Street to its permanent home on Green Valley Parkway and I-215 and shares a fun story about buying desks and chairs from the Clark County School District. He talks about many of the milestones including: Project Ezra which he started during the 2008 recession to help Jewish community members find jobs; the NextGen program which was initiated to bring young adults in their twenties and thirties back to the temple. For over twenty years Rabbi Akselrad was a member of the board of the Nevada Governor?s Council on Holocaust education, a topic that was the focus of his rabbinical thesis. He was the founding president of the Clark County Board of Rabbis and has served on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, Jewish Family Services, and the Humana Hospital Pastoral Advisory Board. He was also the chair of the Federation?s Community Relations Council (CRC). Rabbi Akselrad is a board member of the Anti-Defamation League Nevada region office and the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. Sanford Akselrad was born on October 6, 1957 in Oakland, California and raised in Palo Alto. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles and then went to graduate school at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion. He spent the first year of his graduate program in Israel, the next two in Los Angeles, and the final two years in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rabbi Akselrad met his wife Joni in Reno, Nevada and married her during his third year of rabbinical school. The couple has two children, CJ and Sam. After his ordination in 1984, Rabbi Akselrad was associate rabbi of Temple Israel in Columbus, Ohio, one of the largest Reform congregations in the Midwest. His choice of career was inspired by his father, Sidney Akselrad, who was a prominent rabbi involved in social justice issues and the Civil Rights Movement. Sanford Akselrad has followed his father?s example of community involvement, both in Las Vegas and on a national level: he served on the board of the National Conference of Community and Justice (NCJJ), he was chair of the NCJJ's Inter-faith Council, and he is active in the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ).
Narrator affiliation: Health Physicist, Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company (REECo), Public Health Service (USPHS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Born January 14, 1936 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jerry Reese Jackson has worked as a show producer, director, costume designer, choreographer, lyricist, and composer. In Las Vegas, Nevada, Jackson is best known for his work on the Folies-Bergère at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino where he served as artistic director, choreographer, and later as costume designer for nearly thirty-five years, beginning in 1975 and ending with the show's closure in 2009.
This photograph has three images. The first one, (0272_0020) reads, "Personal pictures taken by Tommy Teas (my brother-in-law) of his work mates on #8 line. Bucket swinging, hard to spot. It hanging about 500 ft. Bell boy talking to operator who is out of sight on top of mountain," as a handwritten inscription. The second one (0272_0021) reads "Men building key, about 10 in. high and two ft. wide. (1) Bell boy getting a good sight to spot the bucket in the right place," as a handwritten inscription. The third one (0272_0022) is an upside down picture of the Dam. Its handmade inscription reads, "Still below river bed. Good look at a pouring crew (x) shows bell boy giving orders to operator. Nice shot showing how bucket works. After the bucket leaves, the men will walk all through the fresh mud to walk out any air pockets."
This photograph has two images. The first one (0272_0038) reads, "No.7 hi-line 'My first job'. Showing all the old crew. I am seasoned by now. But Colette the boss (bottom right), on my first night, began to eat me out because I didn't know to follow the crew to next pour. Here stood a man as large as a bull, with a black eye and a hare-lip & bull-dog face, didn't fear me at all - all my fear was on that stuff going back and forth overhead." The second one (0272_0039) has an inscription that reads, "Good view of men working on No.8 hi-line - not up to the intake towers yet, but have dumped a lot of mud in this hole - good picture for night shift. A good action picture. Know all the men well - First there is Slim, Blackie, the man whose back we see is Whitie, the foreman then Tommie. My brother-in-law. There are four lines like this."
This photograph has three images. The first one (0272_0069) says, "'Nevada spillway' during overflow from a record snowfall in the mountains. Reeves fell from the entrance, shown behind the head caption reads: 'Tourists photographing spillway at Hoover Dam; tunnel behind man's head carries runoff almost half a mile to the Colorado River below.'" The second image (0272_0070) shows a young dam worker, R.B. Reaves (friend of John Kizziar), with the information that Reaves fell to his death in the Colorado River. "He lost his balance while working in the Nevada spillway raise. He was only 17 years old. He was a form stripper for Six Companies, March 1935." The third image (0272_0071) shows a view looking upstream through the channel of the Arizona spillway, Boulder Dam. It reads," Spillway with gates up. Weight of water will open gates. Working platform is being moved out of tunnel."
This photograph has three images. The first one (0272_0072) is upside-down, and it reads, "Speaking of celebrities - 'Form Raising Crew'. A tough and dangerous - a few boys were hurt on this one. I managed to say a little prayer before climbing over a hanging, swinging panel - Dear 'God' don't let it fall now. Only one man on it while it's swinging. Get that first bolt in fast. Art Strickland 'Ill'. Swinging panels make him seasick - some chickens can't fly." The second one (0272_0073) has a handwritten inscription that reads, "'Form Raising Crew' (cont.) 'So. Dakota Slim' - My Gott in himmel! If we had something that wouldn't move - we called on Slim and Reeves." The third one (0272_0074) shows a general view of operations looking across Black Canyon from high point above Nevada spillway. It reads, "Birds eye view of dam, spillways, -- intake towers."