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.
Glenn Victory Tredwell was born on VE Day, May 8, 1945 in Philadelphia, PA. He grew up in a close family in the Philadelphia area and attended Temple University. He later graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in landscape architecture and had a two decade long career in landscaping in Florida.
Glenn can trace his Jewish roots to generations of Russians on his father’s side and to Germany on his mother’s side. He recalls working and learning about the family wholesale produce business—his grandfather owned Christmas tree farms and potato farms.
Aaron Mayes has been a photographer in Southern Nevada since the early 1990s starting at the Henderson Home News, then spending nine years at the Las Vegas Sun. Prior to working with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries Special Collections and Archives as the Curator of Visual Materials, Mayes photographed campus life, social events, athletics, and promotional images as part of UNLV Photo Services.
Arthur C. Lurie (1918-2014) was a Las Vegas, Nevada businessman and boxing judge. Born in Los Angeles, California on April 1, 1918, Lurie served in the Navy during World War II and moved to Las Vegas in 1954. In Las Vegas he owned a bar called Art's Place and was a co-owner of Wonder World Liquors. He was also a founding member and vice president of Temple Beth Sholom. Lurie was best known for his career in boxing; he judged over forty title fights and served on the Nevada Boxing Commission under four different governors.
Gilbert Shaw, better known as Gil, is an original member of Congregation Ner Tamid, a Reform synagogue in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shaw was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Los Angeles, California. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the US Navy and became a combat correspondent and was trained as a journalist and photographer. In 1973 Shaw and his family moved to Los Vegas, Nevada where he took on a sales position and eventually became a regional manager for Familian Pipe and Supply Company.