Music brought Jay Poster to Las Vegas for a brief time in 1974. Jay wanted to pursue a musical career and his cousin was a professional musician with the Nat Brandwynne Orchestra at Caesars Palace. To Jay?s disappointment, within a few months his cousin Jack Poster left Las Vegas for a road tour. So Jay decided his best strategy was to return home to San Diego and his studies at San Diego State University. It would be over a decade later before Jay returned to Las Vegas to live and this time it became permanent. This time it was not for music. For beyond his musical talent, Jay had a gift for connecting with people of all of ages and walks of life. He was good at sales and his day job selling office furniture offered him the opportunity to transfer to Las Vegas in 1986. Within a few years, however, it was a recruiter for Palm Mortuaries who introduced Jay to his defining career moment and to Allen Brewster, a prominent Jewish leader and founder of King David Cemetery and Mortuary. It was 2001. Jay has been King David?s ever since and is the General Manager. In this interview, Jay describes his personal and spiritual growth through his career in funeral services and his respect for the Jewish traditions of burial and grieving. In addition, his passion for music has also soared and he talks about his participation in the Shabbatones at Congregation Ner Tamid and Desert Winds, a community based performance organization. He shares his love of traditional Jewish klezmer music and the Meshugginah Klezmorim.
Longtime Las Vegas resident Jerome "Jerry" D. Countess holds a photograph of his late wife Rachel at his Sun City Summerlin neighborhood home. The couple were married in 1945. Countess established The Jewish Reporter newspaper in Southern Nevada.
Oral history interview with Paulette Canty conducted by Claytee White on July 02, 1998 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Canty opens her interview by discussing her life in Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1960s. Canty talks about being one of the first students to be integrated in the Las Vegas school system. She discusses how the Clark County School District prepared African American and white students for integration. She describes how integration was positive for herself, but that it was a negative experience for her sister and other African American students. Canty also talks about how African American children were raised at the time, discussing the values instilled in boys versus girls. She also talks about her experience working in the gaming industry including as a manager at Bally's Hotel and Casino. She discusses the treatment of African American employees by the gaming industry and labor unions.
Oral history interview with Joan and Leslie Dunn conducted by Barbara Tabach on June 20, 2016 and May 30, 2017 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Leslie discusses working for the United States Public Health Service at the Nevada Test Site for twenty years and launching a development business after retirement. Joan discusses setting aside her career to begin a family and later becoming a business partner with her husband.
Oral history interviews with Renée Marchant Rampton conducted by Caryll Batt Dziedziak on August 27, 2006, January 25, 2011, and March 03, 2011 for the Women's Research Institute of Nevada (WRIN) Las Vegas Women Oral History Project. Rampton begins her interviews discussing her family's migration history. Rampton talks about the influences Mormonism and her mother's feminism had on her life. Rampton then describes moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1959 with her husband. Rampton discusses the musicians union, Musicians' Wives Club, and her work to keep music in the Clark County School District. Lastly, Rampton discusses becoming an elementary school teacher and her efforts to support the Equal Rights Amendment.
Oral history interview with the Temple Sinai roundtable conducted by Barbara Tabach on April 26, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. In this interview, five congregation members of Temple Sinai in Las Vegas, Nevada talk about its formation in 2007 as a result of the merge between two struggling synagogues, Adat Ari El and Temple Beth Am. They discuss the struggles each synagogue had leading up to the merge and Temple Sinai's current Jewish community. Foremost, the members explain the personal connections they each have with Temple Sinai as well as the warm atmosphere they strive to uphold for all of the congregation.