Rocky Mountain Jews

Mrs. Moritz Bernstein, her son and daughter and an unidentified woman ride on burros in front of the waterfalls at Seven Falls, Colorado Springs, Colorado, during a tour. Mrs. Bernstein's other son stands behind the group beside a fake elk. All five of the men and women are wearing hats. Moritz Bernstein had a dry goods store in Walsenburg, Colorado, where the family lived and in other southern Colorado towns.

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Four adults and twenty-two children sit on the steps of the Sons of Israel Synagogue. Congregation Sons of Israel was in Colorado Springs organized in 1903. Pictured here are members of the Hebrew School with their teachers. Standing second from the left is May Myers and third from left is May Margaret Golin. Fourth from left on first row is Rosalie June Golin (Kobey). Second row, left is Loretta Edith Golin (Gass) and third from left is Augusta Gertrude Golin (Meyer).

Formal portrait of the daughters of Harris and Leah Sheffel Kobey. The Kobey sisters are from left to right: Rebecca, 11 years old, Ruth, 5 months old and Dorothy, 5 years old.

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Miriam Rachofsky Kobey and her grandchildren (from left to right, Rebecca, Miriam holding Silas, Philip, and Leon) pose in front of an ivy-covered trellis in Aspen, Colorado. Immigrants Abraham and Miriam (Mary) Kobey began their life in Colorado in Central City. The devout couple became vegetarians for a time while living there because kosher meat transported from Denver often arrived spoiled. After they moved to Denver, Abraham worked as a rabbi and sofer, or scribe, and Miriam became a highly respected midwife, often performing her services free for poor women.  Read more »

Tillye Shulman Levy, shown here at age two at the Shulman family home in Central City in 1897, became one of Denver's most active Jewish volunteers in the area of social welfare.

Louis Anfenger came to the Colorado Territory in 1870 during the state’s formative years. Louis was born in Bavaria in 1842 and died in Denver in 1900. He married Louise Schlesinger in 1871. He was a successful businessman and was a founder and supporter of Congregational Emanuel, the local B’nai B’rith, and National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives. He and Louise (1847-1938) raised a large family in their home at Champa Street and Twenty-ninth Street in Denver, Colorado. This photo, taken in the 1890s, shows Louis and Louise Anfenger seated front center, with their eight children.  Read more »

Louis Robinson established the first Robinson dairy farm in 1885. He was a vital force in developing the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society and donated the land on which the JCRS poultry and dairy farm were developed. Robinson Dairy remained a family enterprise for five generations. He is seated here surrounded by his wife and children. Many generations of Robinson children have grown up in Colorado.

Click here to view this image in the Peak Digital Beck Archives Photograph Collection