Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Finding myself in Vegas for Sukkot, I was in my hotel room scouring Google, looking through eighteen (18!) shuls in the city, and came across this one:
You’re new in town, no roots, few friends, strange city, your feet are planted firmly in mid-air. Perhaps you’re planning to visit Las Vegas, maybe you’re in a hotel room right now, scouring Google, escaping echoes of The Strip, slot machines, turmoil, where’s the ATM? You were raised in a conservative congregation and want the same tradition for your children. You haven’t been to synagogue in a long, long time, you want to touch base, reconnect. There’s been another bombing in
Israel, you were told as a child “Never Again” but it’s happening once more. You miss Shabbat, God, the company of other Jews, it’s time to honor your deceased, pray for the sick, rejoice in the living, you simply want to sing, laugh, mingle, find out where to get good Chinese. Temple Beth Sholom. Whatever your reason, Welcome Home.
So I went to Sukkot services at Temple Beth Shalom.
It is the oldest congregation in
It wasn’t until 1946 that some of the city’s Jewish leaders banded together to form a Conservative synagogue,
Temple Beth Sholom, the first formal Jewish congregation in Las Vegas. As the city grew, so did Temple Beth Sholom, from a modest building in the Downtown area . . . to a large synagogue [several years later]. . . . [I]n 1997 the congregation purchased seven acres of property at Town Center Drive and Havenwood Lane. At a cost of more than $10 million — in addition to much more in the form of contributions of labor, materials and services — the new Temple Beth Sholom was formally dedicated on Sept. 24, 2000.
At the time they purchased the property, there were no roads in the area. Now there are a lot of surrounding houses, residential complexes, malls and other structures. Here is the main sanctuary:
Sukkot services were in the smaller Steinberg Chapel, which seats about 150:
You can barely appreciate the stained glass windows in the picture. There are 10 of them entitled “The Ancient Amidah Windows,” designed by the architectural glass artist Riki Dubo. The little rectangular spot on the right side is an electronic sign that flashes the current page in the prayer book or Torah reading, so that everyone can follow.
I walked in to services late (just like home!); the chapel was pretty full; an usher handed me a prayer book already opened to the page they were on; and I parked myself in the last row, in the last seat in the row, in the corner.
They found me anyway. A woman came over and handed me a small laminated card. It told me I had the honor of returning the Torah to the ark. The reverse side of the card explained what to do.
The service was led by Rabbi Felipe Goodman and Cantor Daniel Friedman. Rabbi Goodman was born in
They are both modest and engaging men. Together they created a service with a nice atmosphere — and the Torah was successfully returned to the ark.
After the service, and an oneg in the sukkah outside, Hillel Aronson gave two out-of-towners and me a tour of the shul, pointing out the garden memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto, which includes stones from it, and other memorials to the Holocaust:
Then Hillel gave us a ride back to the Strip, sharing along the way some stories about the history of the shul. Both he and the congregation reflect what was said about Abraham: that he ran to welcome visitors. It is a haimish, welcoming congregation. I had good luck in Vegas.