Valerie Wiener is an accomplished state senator, business owner, president and founding member of the Public Service Institute of Nevada and the Valerie Wiener Foundation. She was born October 30, 1948 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her service as senator for 16 years and her role as a public servant led her to become the first woman assistant majority leader of the state senate in Nevada. She graduated with a bachelor degree of Journalism at the University of Missouri/Columbia within the School of Journalism earning a Masters of Arts in Broadcast Journalism and a Master of Arts in Literature at the University of Illinois in Springfield while attending law school at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento in the 1970s. Her generosity is also seen through scholarships and activities at the Louis Wiener Jr. Elementary School. In addition, Valerie is a professional speaker, consultant, and internationally published author. She is the recipients of many awards, such as: ?Women of Achievement Award? in Media; ?Healthy Schools Heroes?; ?Public Affairs Champion Award?; ?Legislator of the Year?, and the Nevada Secretary of State?s recipient of the ?Jean Ford Participatory Democracy Award.? She stays active through her commitment to the Nevada Senior Olympics for both Fitness and Weightlifting earning 17 gold medals from 1998 to 2007. In this interview, Wiener discusses her childhood and being raised in Las Vegas in the 1950s as well as the academic path that led her career into politics. She shares memorable insight into the life of her father, Louis Isaac Wiener, Jr., an accomplished attorney and business man who represented the infamous Benjamin ?Bugsy? Siegel during the construction and opening of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino in 1946. Throughout Wiener?s interview, she highlights the traditions of the small, but growing Las Vegas Jewish population in the 1960s. Among the people she recalls most vividly is her grandmother Kitty Wiener. Wiener also discusses her community service work and her life mantra of giving.

Part of an interview with Arne Rosencrantz on February 18, 2015. In this clip, Rosencrantz discusses his family heritage, childhood, and living in Las Vegas.

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).

On December 30, 2015, a few months after her 100th birthday celebration, Gertrude Rudiak, with the help of her son Richard Rudiak and granddaughter Dani Ramage, reminisced about living in Las Vegas since 1946, nearly eighty years. They explore the ancestral roots of Gertrude (n?e Rightman) and of her deceased husband George Rudiak. Their courtship and marriage at the brink of World War II and George?s enlistment in the US Army Corps is what brought the couple to Las Vegas and the gunnery school which is now Nellis Air Force Base. After his tour of duty, George settled into a law practice where he specialized in quickie-divorces, but also carved out a reputation supporting civil rights and working for legislation to eliminate working and living discrimination of blacks in Nevada. Gertrude was an active member of Las Vegas. She played the pipe organ, hosted large Seders at Passover and managed the Rudiak household that grew to include five children. Over her long life, Gertrude embraced many positions on community boards, including being Temple Beth Sholom?s first female board member. She was also a teacher in both secular and Jewish education. Her efforts have been recognized by the Jewish National Fund, the United Jewish Appeal, and the Anti-Defamation League. Additionally, Mayor Carolyn Goodman presented Gertrude with the distinguished honor of a key to the city of Las Vegas in 2014. The city declared August 2, Gertrude's birthday, Gertrude Rudiak Day in recognition of her long-standing commitment to Las Vegas.

In this oral history Michael Mack discusses his early memories of Las Vegas such as attending the Fifth Street School and activities him and his friends participated in. The interview also includes his memories of different members of the Mack family and their activities. He reminisces about his many visits to the Flamingo Hotel as well as being taken by his parent to floor shows. He also discusses what it was like to grow up Jewish in Las Vegas and the way Jews helped build the community.

Interview with Susan Greenspun Fine by Cecillia Boland on February 18, 1976. In this interview, Fine talks about growing up in Las Vegas and her schooling. The interview is geared towards the growth of Las Vegas from her childhood to her adulthood, including roads, air travel and medical facilities. She is the daughter of Hank and Barbara Greenspun, owners of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, and discusses being involved in all the happenings around town because of that.

Annual report from Congregation Ner Tamid, 2008-2009