Oral history interview with Sonja Niekerk Walther and Wilma Vandenberg conducted by Barbara Tabach on November 20, 2017 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Walther and Vandenberg discuss surviving the Holocaust, being raised in the Netherlands, and their families’ journey to the United States and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Oral history interview with David and Iris Torjman conducted by Barbara Tabach on November 12, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Iris discusses moving to Las Vegas, Nevada from the Bronx in New York and meeting her husband. David discusses being a Jewish educator for Temple Beth Sholom. David also talks about working as a card dealer and investing in land.
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.
Oral history interviews with Michael Green conducted by Barbara Tabach on February 26, 2018 and April 04, 2018 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In the first interview, Green discusses his family background and growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada. He talks about his Jewish ancestry and the significance of religious communities in Las Vegas. In the second interview, Green discusses the growth of the Jewish community in Las Vegas, and the history of the Jewish heritage in Southern Nevada.
Oral history interview with Jacqueline "Jaki" Baskow conducted by Barbara Tabach on October 24, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Baskow shares stories of entertainers that she has worked with in Las Vegas, Nevada to build her business, Baskow and Associates. She also mentions mentors such as Bobby Morris, Frank Sinatra, and Jilly Rizzo.
Oral history interview with Yocheved Mintz conducted by Barbara Tabach on March 11, 2015 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Rabbi Mintz discusses arriving in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1997 with her husband, the founder of Cenegenics. She also talks about becoming a spiritual leader of what is now known as Congregation P'nai Tikvah in 2005.
Interview with Elaine Galatz by Barbara Tabach on April 22, 2015. In this interview, Galatz talks about growing up in Wisconsin. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she was an English major and active in Hillel and the Sigma Delta Tau sorority. She met her husband, Neil, while traveling through Las Vegas on several occasions, and sparks finally flew when she visited him in Tucson on a whim. She describes Neil's background in law, moving to Las Vegas together, and her job teaching second grade. She describes the small Jewish community in the 1960 including the Katzes, Brookmans, Freys, Molaskys and Greenspuns, and the current direction of the Jewish Federation. Galatz discusses raising her children, some of the cases that Neil worked on, their group of friends, and her love of horses.
Elaine Galatz was raised on a farm outside Madison, Wisconsin. Her father was a Russian immigrant father and her mother a young American born bride. Her father died when she was a teenager and her mother remarried a man who enjoyed gambling and that would lead her to first encounter with Las Vegas. Las Vegas would coincidentally become the center of her life when she and her husband of 51 years, Neil Galatz moved here in 1961. Elaine taught school briefly and worked in Neil's successful law firm for a number of years. Neil was a significant litigator in the MGM fire and PEPCON explosion cases. The couple also shared in the growth of Las Vegas Jewish community. Elaine served as Jewish Federation president, the second woman to hold that office. Among their favorite shared family activities was a love of Morgan horses, which continues to present day for Elaine.
Oral history interview with Kathleen Kahn Mahon conducted by Barbara Tabach on December 03, 2018 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, Mahon discusses her family’s upbringing in New Mexico and talks about her Jewish education as a child. Mahon describes her family’s role in the founding of Congregation Albert in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She then talks about moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1980, taking on a pediatric ophthalmologist position, and being involved in the pediatric community. Mahon recalls becoming the first female president of the Nevada Chapter of the American College of Surgeons and her involvement with the Junior League of Las Vegas. Lastly, Mahon discusses the Ronald McDonald House, the Pediatric Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and being a founding member of the Children's Discovery Museum.
Gertrude Rudiak and her daughter Geri Rentchler discuss their early lives in Las Vegas, including their experiences as a Jewish women and social activists in Southern Nevada.