An Interview with Shelley Berkley
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AN INTERVIEW WITH SHELLEY BERKLEY An Oral History Conducted by Barbara Tabach Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ©Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV – University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers: Barbara Tabach, Claytee D. White Editors and Project Assistants: Maggie Lopes, Stefani Evans ii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first- person narratives. The participants in this project thank University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews with permission of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas iii PREFACE Former United States Democratic Congresswoman Shelley Berkley represented Nevada’s 1st Congressional District from 1999 to 2013, an area that includes most of Las Vegas. During her seven terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the district benefited from millions of dollars of federal funding for education, transportation, and other projects. She also successfully fought against storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Shelley Berkley was born Rochelle Levine in New York City in 1951 and moved to Las Vegas during junior high in 1963. She practiced law in Las Vegas and served in the Nevada Assembly for two years. She was also a member and vice chair of the Nevada University and Community College System Board of Regents. Berkley attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she served as student body president and graduated with honors in 1972 with a B.A. in political science. After obtaining her J.D. in 1976 from the University of San Diego, she returned to Las Vegas to practice law. From 1976 to 1979 Berkley was Deputy Director of the Nevada State Department of Commerce. She provided legal counsel to several casinos at various points in her career, served as national director of the American Hotel-Motel Association, and founded the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys and the Senior Law Project. In 1977 she married Frederic Berkley and had two children, Max and Sam. She remarried in 1999 to Dr. Lawrence Lehrner of Las Vegas, who also had two children from a previous marriage. Before being elected to Congress, Berkley served on the board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. She continued her vocal support of Israel in Congress and was heavily involved in all matters related to the Middle East. She was a member of several committees, including: Foreign Affairs, Veterans Affairs, Ways and Means, Small Business, and Transportation. Building a new Veterans Administration medical complex in Southern Nevada and sponsoring many pieces of healthcare legislation are also among her accomplishments as a U.S. Representative. In 2013, she was appointed CEO and Senior Provost of the Touro College and University System’s Western Division. In this interview, Berkley shares her family history, from her great-grandparents’ immigration to the United States to her immediate family’s own migration from New York to Las Vegas. She reflects upon her childhood experience in Las Vegas, including her varied leadership positions with Jewish organizations as well as at school, from junior high school through college. Berkley also talks about her involvement as an adult within the Jewish community and more broadly as a public servant, in all levels of government. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Shelley Berkley on February 13, 2015 by Barbara Tabach in Las Vegas, Nevada Preface………………………………………………………………………………………..…..iv Talks about family history; their immigration from Greece and Russia to New York City; her calling to public service, and strong Jewish identity. Discusses how her parents met; moving from New York City to Catskills for father’s work; then moving to Las Vegas, where father eventually became the maître d’ of the Copa Room…………………………………………..…………....1-6 Describes acclimating to life in Las Vegas as a young adult; becoming very involved in school, extra-curricular activities; attending Fremont Junior High School, then Valley High School. More about father’s career; mother’s involvement with Jewish community, and fostering her and sisters own commitment. Reflects upon life in city in 1960s and 70s, and its growth over the years; being active in high school student government……………………………………….……………..7-11 Discusses experience as UNLV student; joining Delta Zeta sorority. Comments on anti-Semitism, both in Las Vegas as well as New York. Mentions involvement with B’nai B’rith. Talks about Jewish Federation; joining board post-law school; involvement with AIPAC, ADL, and role of each organization. Comments on current U.S.-Israel relations. Remembers planning ADL annual dinners with Art Marshall; other ADL programming…………………………….…………..12-18 Mentions more Jewish organizations involved with, including National Association of Christians and Jews, Jewish Family Service Agency, Jewish National Fund. Describes role of J Street on Capitol Hill. Lists various Jewish leaders influential in Las Vegas’ development as a city, including Art Marshall, Jerry Mack, Hank Greenspun, Irwin Molasky……………………...19-21 Reflects on political career, starting as a high school senior working on Nevada State Assembly campaigns, including Harry Reid’s; working for Mike O’Callaghan’s governorship campaign, being appointed to work for State Commerce Department post-election. Later serves as in-house counsel for Southwest Gas Corporation. Discusses running for political office, in state assembly, state legislature; serving as president at Channel 10, Las Vegas PBS, Board of Regents…...22-27 Index.........................................................................................................................................28-29 v vi This is Barbara Tabach. Today is February the thirteenth. I'm sitting with Shelley Berkley in her office at Touro University. There are various ways that we can go talking about your history, about your future and all those things. I don't usually ask the question this way, but I'm curious. If you were to write a memoir today of your life, where would you start your story? That is an interesting question and I think I would start where I always start, with my grandparents coming to this country. My mother's side of the family is from Salonica, Greece; my father's side is from the Russia‑Poland border. My mother's side of the family, prior to World War II, lived in Salonica, Greece. Half of the population of Salonica was Jewish; there were about eighty thousand Jews there. By the time the Nazis finished with us, there were less than a thousand Jews left. I am not presumptuous enough to think that my family would have been among the thousand chosen to live. On my father's side of the family, from the Russia‑Poland border, an entire culture and civilization that had existed in that part of the world for a millennium was exterminated during the course of World War II. Both sides of my family were already in the United States in New York’s Lower East Side prior to World War II. My great‑grandparents came with their six children; my grandmother was one of the six children. They couldn't speak English. They had no money. They had limited skills. The only thing they had when they came to this country was a dream and that dream was that their children and their children's children would have a better life here in the United States than they had where they came from. I often think of myself as my grandparents' American dream, but I am quite certain that in their wildest dreams they never could have imagined that they'd have a granddaughter who was a member of 1 the United States Congress. This is a remarkable country. I always wanted to be in public service, to be in elected office for two reasons. One is to pay forward, give something back to this country for having taken my family in; and not only giving us a chance to survive, which we did, but to thrive, which we certainly have. The other reason is that I grew up hearing stories about what life was like where they came from and being an active member of all the Jewish youth groups, learning about the Holocaust and recognizing the horror of it; for me public service was a way of insuring that what happened to our people two generations ago could never happen again; that I would be in a position to make sure it didn't happen again. Public service was a calling that I needed to fulfill. It was very important for me to do that. Given the fact that my Jewishness is the very essence of who I am, when I take a step back and I think about it, being Jewish determined my values, my friends, my interests, my passions, my husband, the way I raised my children. It is the essence of who I am, and so I take it very seriously. I am very happy that I am Jewish and I feel a sense of responsibility to be a very vocal part of my people.