BIO
Karin Sporn’s life is an amazing voyage from the old-world town of Gronau in Germany to the lights of Las Vegas in the American Southwest.
Her story is a winding road full of love, faith, and freedom driven by an independent spirit that has taken her around the world. She dated an American expatriate rockstar that toured Europe, saw Queen perform “Bohemian Rhapsody” in a small intimate studio before they hit it big, and became the first female sales representative for what would become GlaxoSmithKline. These are some of her many life experiences while also occasionally working as a part time model.
Throughout the adventures of her early life, there was always something that piqued Karin’s curiosity. Growing up in post-WWII Germany, she had always wondered about what happened during the war. Her father had been a soldier in the German Army and a follower of Hitler, but her family and educational up-bringing never delved into the tragedy of the war years, especially the plight of the Jewish people and the Holocaust.
It was a chance encounter with a maid named Eva on a trip to Israel where Karin discovered the true horrors of the Holocaust.
The heartbreaking story of Eva losing her entire family at Auschwitz and the experiments performed on her and her twin sister (who also did not survive) touched Karin deeply. That trip to Israel started her on the journey to the thing that helped bring her life into focus: the Jewish faith.
After meeting the man that would become her husband, David (an Israeli-born Jew whose family fled Europe before WWII), Karin began her serious pursuit to convert to Judaism. Hers was a long commitment of studying the people she endeavored to join, not just for marriage, but for herself, as this is where she believed she found her spiritual home. She officially converted in 1978 and married shortly after.
Karin experienced the joys of motherhood raising her daughters Jessica and Dana and found a community in a Jewish faith. She and her family had many happy memories as and Karin enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle using her entrepreneurial skills to help David build a travel business in Germany. Thanks to the rising success of Siegfried and Roy’s Las Vegas residency in the mid-1990’s, they saw their business expand to the point that the family eventually relocated to the United States (first San Diego and later Las Vegas).
However, amid the success and her love of raising her two daughters, Karin experienced the loneliness of a marriage where she was the only one holding it together and trying to make it work. While she initially saw her marriage through rose-colored glasses, the façade eventually faded, and she realized the man she married was not who she thought he was. After struggling for years with his infidelity and self centeredness, she finally decided to divorce David in 2013, never looking back.
With her newfound freedom, a great source of wealth, and a team of people to guide her, Karin committed herself to giving back in even greater measure to the Jewish community of faith that she joined so many years ago. Her tireless efforts have seen her make a difference in the lives of young mothers and their children through the work of Shade Tree, travel with AIPAC advocating for Jewish people in various states of need around the world, and helping to enrich the local and national Jewish community through the Jewish Federation as a chair or director of its various philanthropic causes.
Karin’s journey has been chronicled in her new book “Just Peek Over the Fence.” The book’s title summarizes Karin’s touching journey of faith, motherhood, friendship, and finding her own voice and comes from advice she imparted to a dear friend:
“If you can just peek over the fence and see what’s on the other side, your fears will go away and you will get moving again”
This is the advice that Karin hopes her story imparts to others. Keep moving forward and looking ahead to what life has in store for you over the next fence.
