Dr. Allan N. Boruszak is an obstetrician and gynecologist who owned a private practice in Las Vegas, Nevada for 21 years. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois and attended medical school at the University of Illinois. Boruszak was a clinical instructor and chief resident at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1982 to 1983. While in Las Vegas, Boruszak was also an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. From 1993 to 1995 he was president of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas.
Arne Rosencrantz was born on September 27, 1947 in Longview, Washington. He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1952 and graduated from Las Vegas High School. He grew up in the dense Mormon population of the John S. Park Neighborhood. Rosencrantz attended Nevada Southern University, now known as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). In 1967, Rosencrantz began working at Garrett's Furniture and in 1979, he purchased the company and became its president.
Joan Dunn was born February 22, 1943 in the Bronx of New York City, New York. She was a teenager when she met and fell in love with Leslie Dunn. The couple married in 1962. And their loving partnership as parents and business people began. Joan attended City College of New York and received a BS/MA from UNLV in accounting. The Dunns moved to Las Vegas in 1962, when Les came to work at the Nevada Test Site. Years later, the couple would invest in real estate and were involved in major projects such as the development of the Galleria Mall.
Interview with Myra Berkovits by Barbara Tabach on August 21, 2014. In this interview, Berkovits talks about growing up and starting her teaching career in Chicago. When she moves to Las Vegas, Berkovits eventually purchases a dining concierge business, but returned to teaching, and is now involved with the Sperling Kronberg Mack Holocaust Resource Center.
Myra Berkovits was born Myra Mosse in 1944 in Chicago, Illinois. She became an elementary school teacher in Chicago before moving to Las Vegas in 1980. Myra has made contributions to Las Vegas in the public and private sectors. She owned several businesses then returned to teaching, heading to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) to renew her teaching license and later received her master's degree. After a year of teaching in multicultural education, Myra was then in charge of the school district's homeless program, seeing its growth from serving 1,200 to 6,000 students. Myra's other passion was for Holocaust education and she became one of six interviewers in the city for the Shoah Foundation, documenting survivors' stories. One interviewee, David Berkovits, would later become her husband of fifteen years. Myra's own Holocaust education was aided by powerful trips to Israel and Poland. She used these experiences to develop and lead student-teacher conferences and classroom curriculum for the whole state. Myra still serves at the Education Specialist at the Holocaust Resource Center.
Ruth Pearson Urban was born in 1948 in Los Angeles, California. At the age of ten, she moved to Las Vegas with her mother and older sister. Urban spent most of her childhood in the Huntridge area and was always heavily involved with Temple Beth Sholom. After graduating from Las Vegas High School, Urban attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she received a bachelor’s degree in social work, and later, a master’s degree in counseling.
David Wasserman in a Las Vegas dentist and cofounder of Congregation Ner Tamid. He was born on December 3, 1944 in Newark, New Jersey. In 1966 he graduated from Rutgers University with his bachelors in Zoology. In 1970 he recieved his Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. Upon grauation he served two years of active duty as a captain in the United States Air Force Dental Corps at Nellis Air Force Base. In 1972 he recieved his dental license and began his private practice that same year.
Deanne Alterwitz-Stralser (née Friedman) was born January 1, 1931 in Hammond, Indiana, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom. Alterwitz-Stralser spent her childhood in Calumet City, just across the state line in Illinois, and was raised with a strong Jewish identity. At the age of sixteen, she met her husband, Oscar Alterwitz, at an Alpha Zadik Alpha (AZA) dance in Gary, Indiana, and the two were married in 1950.