Question of the Day - 09 September 2025

We ran a two-part series on Jewish mobsters in Las Vegas a little more than a year ago, which you can read here and here. 

In the posts, we discussed the likes of Meyer Lansky, Ben Siegel, Moe Sedway, Gus Greenbaum, Moe Dalitz, Carl Cohen, Jack Entratter, John "Jake the Barber" Factor, Frank Rosenthal, and Davie Berman. These were the big Jewish names in the casino business of the era. But as we wrote at the end of Part 2: "The Jewish mobsters we've covered in these two QoDs are just the best known, due mainly to their notoriety and, shall we say, executive positions in the Mob and Mob-owned casinos.

"But legions of lesser lights -- dealers, pit bosses, casino managers, count-room personnel and bag guys, enforcers, etc. -- were also employed in Las Vegas in those days. They'd held similar positions in the illegal joints all over the country and, with gambling a legitimate business in Nevada, were instantly and miraculously transformed from criminals at home into lawful taxpaying shift workers and upstanding members of the growing Las Vegas community as soon as they crossed the state line. They're mostly forgotten today, but these casino workers, of all religions, ethnicities, and backgrounds, had as much to do with decriminalizing, destigmatizing, and legitimizing casino gambling as the gangsters who did or didn't survive the Mob."

Those were all casino guys, mostly Mob-connected. Here are other "Jewish presences" who would no doubt have enjoyed traditional menu specialties.

Jewish entertainers — Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor, Georgie Jessel, Henny Youngman, Mlton Berle, and later Jerry Lewis, Mel Tormé, Danny Kaye, Buddy Hackett, Jan Murray, Alan King, Joey Bishop, and, yes, Sammy Davis Jr. — were Strip headliners and brought Hollywood attention to Vegas. And Jewish booking agents and promoters were heavily involved in filling the showrooms with that kind of talent in those days.

Meanwhile, everyday Jews were a tiny minority in Las Vegas, fewer than 100 families in the 1940s. And they faced exclusion — some country clubs and neighborhoods had “gentlemen’s agreements” restricting Jews.

Still, Jewish businessmen and professionals were active in retail, liquor distribution, real estate, banking, and the law, all of which supported the casino industry. Also, they built institutions; the first synagogue, Temple Beth Sholom, was founded in 1944. Some became major philanthropists and civic leaders, helping Jews integrate into the city’s power structure by the 1950s.

By the 1960s, Las Vegas was virtually a second home to the entertainers: Barbra Streisand, Neil Sedaka, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, Jackie Mason, Shecky Greene, Jack Carter, Totie Fields, Myron Cohen. The pipeline from the Borscht Belt to Vegas was strong — many Jewish comics who honed their acts in Catskills resorts found steady work in Vegas showrooms. And behind the scenes, Jewish producers, musical arrangers, musicians, and booking agents dominated the entertainment business in Vegas.  

By the late '60s, there were several synagogues and Jews had gone from a small minority with mob and showbiz ties to established players in business, politics, philanthropy, and professional life, helping build the city’s schools, hospitals, and neighborhoods, not just its casinos. The Jewish population was still small (perhaps 10,000 in a city of around 150,000 by 1965), but they were now highly organized and visible. Jewish leaders were often allies in the fight against racial segregation in Vegas hotels and they were no longer shut out of local clubs, boards, and real estate developments. 

Of course, Jewish humor and culture seeped into the greater society by way of the casino bosses, entertainers, and civic leaders and where Jewish culture is found, you can count on its food traditions to be on the scene right along with it. Which is why the menus of the day were replete with bagels and lox, challah, knishes, chicken soup with matzo balls and kreplach, deli sandwiches like corned beef, pastrami, and chopped liver with kosher dill pickles, plus brisket, latkes, gefilte fish, tzimmes, rugelach, babka, sufganiyot – and on and on. 

The good old days.