Hilary Leila Krieger, THE JERUSALEM POST

Maybe if the Jewish Agency had sent a representative to Las Vegas three decades ago, Meyer Lansky would have been more successful when he tried to make aliya. Instead, the gangster who helped establish Sin City's notorious casinos was kicked out of Israel after he applied for citizenship.

Now, though, a new generation of Las Vegas Jews will have a direct connection to Israel's Jew recruiters. For the first time, the agency is sending a shaliach (emissary) to what has become America's fastest-growing Jewish community. If Jews are going to move to the desert, after all, why not make it the Negev?

The agency stressed, however, that the shaliach – who will be making his debut in August – will be a young volunteer dedicated to Israel-Diaspora relations rather than a professional focused on processing paperwork for prospective Israelis.

"He's got to be creative. He can't be an old-hat square," said Michael Jankelowitz, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency. The shaliach needs to be "someone who's young and got an open mind... who can run around and doesn't have any baggage."

The one-year post is part of the Jewish Agency's new focus on young, flexible emissaries who serve a number of community-building functions rather than traditional office-bound agency workers who interview potential immigrants and make arrangements for aliya. That role will be performed by "roving" professionals who will fly in occasionally to help process immigration files.

"There is a new Jewish community there [in Las Vegas] and the community started to get organized," said Bemy Rychter, the Jewish Agency's central director for missions. "They want to connect with Israel and one way to make a connection with Israel is to get a shaliach."

The role of the young Israeli – someone between army service and 30 – will be to hold events for Jewish holidays, conduct seminars in schools, promote trips to Israel and more, said Rychter, who didn't include poker nights or lessons on Jewish mobsters on his list of educational programming.

"Everyone thinks of Las Vegas only as casinos, but there are a lot of Jews there also," Rychter said, noting that most Jews in the community are young professionals working in fields such as business, medicine and engineering.

Indeed, the city has come a long way since Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and other prominent members of the Jewish mob ruled the roost.

A plethora of synagogues – the kind that don't perform quickie weddings – have popped up, as have Jewish schools, kosher restaurants, and community newspapers.

Las Vegas is only one of several US cities that will receive young shaliach volunteers (living expenses are covered but technically, they aren't paid) for the first time this summer, as the three-year-old program will be nearly doubled in size to some 70 participants this year.

But the fast pace of Jewish development makes the desert destination particularly deserving of an emissary, according to the Jewish Agency.

"Las Vegas is the fastest growing [Jewish] community in America, and it doesn't make sense that the Jewish Agency isn't going to send a shaliach," Jankelowitz said.

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