Rabbi Sanford Akselrad oversaw construction of this new 9-acre temple campus for Congregation Ner Tamid at Valle Verde Drive. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Growing pains aren't just for businesses.

With Southern Nevada's population expanding by about 65,000 people a year, houses of worship are also striving to market to new members and serve burgeoning congregations.

So it's no surprise to hear Rabbi Sanford Akselrad, leader of reform Jewish synagogue Congregation Ner Tamid, throw out terms such as "added value" and discuss using YouTube to reach out to prospective members. Amid preparing services and visiting with congregation members, Akselrad has overseen construction of a 9-acre temple campus for Congregation Ner Tamid at Valle Verde Drive and the Las Vegas Beltway. The synagogue's dedication service was scheduled for Feb. 25, while its first Sabbath service was slated to be held this past Friday.

Since Akselrad joined Congregation Ner Tamid in 1988, the synagogue's membership has increased from 60 families to 600 families.

Question: What brought you to Las Vegas?

Answer: My wife is from Reno, and when there was an opening in Las Vegas, she encouraged me to look here. Everyone else told me to forget about it.

Question: Why?

Answer: They said it was Las Vegas, and Sin City. They knew me -- a conservative, quiet guy. But I saw there were about 20,000 Jews here and only two rabbis. You have to go where the Jews are.

Question: You sold your old temple (near Desert Inn Road and Eastern Avenue) in 2005 before you built a new one. How have you carried out the congregation's functions?

Answer: We've been very creative. We tried to keep everything close to where we were moving. We rented office space (on Green Valley Parkway), and for school, we use neighborhood elementary schools. Our most unusual decision was to hold our services at King David (Memorial) Chapel, associated with Palm Mortuary (on Eldorado Lane). Some people teased me, but other people said, "You know what? When you're there, it's a spiritual place."

Question: Has membership dropped?

Answer: No. It's stayed steady, and now it's starting to expand. People kept saying, "When the building is built, we'll join." Now the building is pretty much built, and a lot of people are joining. We have about 600 families, and we want to grow to 800 or 900 families to sustain this building and the dream.

Question: For companies who want to expand to a bigger building, how would you recommend they keep the business healthy?

Answer: We've tried to keep the core programs going as best as we could -- worship services, education of children and day-to-day office activities. With social activities, we've been creative. We've used public parks, we've rented from hotels or we've used people's homes. Not one program was cut.

It may not have run as smoothly as before, and we may not have added new programs, but all the core programs stayed.

Question: Why did you choose a career as a rabbi?

Answer: When I was in ninth grade, I attended (Camp Swig, in Saratoga, Calif.). This Jewish camp had a lot of fantastic people. Of the group I went to camp with, five of us became rabbis, so it was a very important year. Whatever they did at the camp that year, with the staff and the programming, it just seemed to inspire people with a sense of what living a Jewish life could become. I wouldn't say a lightning bolt hit me, but I realized living a Jewish life brought meaning to my life, and being a leader was something I was capable of and something that brought me gratification.

When you look at the skills a rabbi needs -- a love of Judaism, being a Jewish role model, studying, teaching -- those things fit my personality profile.

Question: What's the hardest part of the job?

Answer: The sheer lack of time. In any given year we might have 300 programs going on, so I'm pulled constantly into the programmatic area, and also the pastoral areas. Every rabbi wants to do life cycles.

That's why you become a rabbi: to bury, to marry, to name. That's the meaningful part. But the other part of the rabbinate, which is more administration, is something I wish I had to do less. You'd be surprised at the nuances of detail that are required. The person putting pews in the new chapel needed our book dimensions so he would know how low to hang the book holder.

Another wanted to know where on the podium he was going to put the microphone, and I had to point out that the podium was going to be used by 13-year-old children who are about 5 feet tall. So if the microphone wasn't adjustable, it wouldn't be useful. Is that religion? No, but it is part of the job.

Question: What has been the hardest part about building the new temple?

Answer: We spent about a year fund-raising beginning in 2000. In September 2001, we announced the project to great fanfare. Of course, (the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks) were that same year. So the plan had to be put on hold. The town had been seized with a certain amount of fear, and (Las Vegas) went into recession.

The project stalled for two or three years, and we picked it up again in 2005. The advantage was, we were able to think about the project for a long time, so even though we couldn't raise the money we needed (after Sept. 11), we had money to plan and to dream of what we wanted this campus to look like.

The downside was that the cost of the project more than doubled. We were able to raise most of the money, but had we known then what we know now, we may not have even done it. We might have said it was beyond our grasp. We thought it was going to be an $8 million project, and it's actually a $26 million or $27 million project.

Question: Aside from an adult-education center, a healing center and an outdoor amphitheater, what will the new campus have that your former temple lacked?

Answer: Technology. We have the ability to do webcasting. We have mounted cameras and pull-down screens. Those are par-for-the-course for churches but not for synagogues.

Question: Why the emphasis on technology?

Answer: If someone cannot fly here for a wedding or bar mitzvah, they can be part of it on the Internet. If people can't come to services, they can still watch. Eventually, we'll podcast, and we'll webcast classes.

Question: How much of that technology is driven by wanting to spread your spiritual message versus wanting to bring more members or publicity to the synagogue?

Answer: (Technology) provides added value. If you're a member of our congregation, these are added values. Will they encourage more people to join? Maybe, or maybe not. If someone has a wedding here and their mother watches it in Nebraska, she's not going to join.

Yet, it's good that we can offer that service, and they know the temple is reaching out to provide a meaningful experience for them at a very sacred time.

Question: How will you increase membership?

Answer: It comes in gradual steps. Some of it is using technology to reach people unexpected ways. If they hear a sermon or see me via the Internet, they might think, "Oh, this guy's kind of interesting -- I'm intrigued." Or when it's time for them to be married, they might say, "I've never met him, but I heard his message on the Internet, so maybe I'll check him out."

You create a virtual relationship that can become very real. It's the power of the medium.