Viva Las Vegas
“The influx of new residents to the Las Vegas region has made it not only the nation’s fastest-growing locale but also North America’s fastest-growing Jewish community, according to national and local Jewish leaders. Although their biblical forebears wandered in frustration for decades in the cruel, hot desert after escaping Egyptian slavery — as this week’s holiday of Passover recalls — today thousands are finding the air-conditioned Nevada desert to be downright homey.”
http://chakira.blog-city.com/read/437605.htm
http://chakira.blog-city.com/read/445699.htm
these are dispatches from my recent trip to Vegas.
Enjoy!
last time i was in the vegas airport, a couple of hasids were walking by. the cowboy next to me turned to his woman and drawled, “check out the jews.”
The Venitian hotel is woned by an orthodox jew, who had special shabbos doors without eloctrinic sensors and good old locks with keys as opposed to the credit card electronic kind to cater to the “frummies”.
I lived in Vegas in 2001 while working for a software company doing some marketing work. The JCC didn’t even have an office then, let alone a full-blown community center. The big shuls in the area are all American Reform (we sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, and ready everything in English) but there was a quickly-growing Chabadnik group in the area, too. I tried to start a Renewalish chavurah, but got a tepid response at best. Vegas may be fast-growing, but it is highly plastic and transient. People kvetch about the lack of community, yet don’t want to do any heavy-lifting to create some.
Just my opinion.