Temple Beth Am was a Jewish Reform congregation founded by Rabbi Mel Hecht in 1984 in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1992, some members of the congregation, unhappy with Rabbi Hecht's leadership, broke off to form Congregation Adat Ari El. Construction on Beth Am's campus began in Summerlin in 2001. In 2007 Temple Beth Am and Adat Ari El merged to form Temple Sinai.
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These photographs and ephemera are mounted in the hallway at Temple Beth Sholom, and document the history of the synagogue from it's beginnings in the 1940s through 2003.
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Temple Beth Sholom was the first Jewish congregation in Southern Nevada and continues to function as a religious, educational, and social center for a considerable portion of the Jewish community of Las Vegas. Previously known as the Jewish Community Center of Las Vegas, it became affiliated with the Conservative Movement and officially known as Temple Beth Sholom in 1958. The congregation originated in Las Vegas in the 1930s with a small group of families and grew to be the largest temple in Nevada during the 1960s.
Midbar Kodesh is a Conservative Jewish temple founded in Henderson, Nevada in 1995 by former members of Temple Beth Sholom. Population growth and physical expansion of real estate warranted the establishment of the second Conservative congregation in Southern Nevada, whose name means “Holy Desert.” Temple Beth Sholom was moving to the west side of the valley, and a group of families- the Kaminskys, Goldmans, Rothmans, Simons, Goldsteins, and Feldmans- decided to start a new temple on the east side.
