Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol (Denver, Colo.)

Abstract Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol Congregation (BMH-the Great House of Study) was establsihed in 1892 in a group of rented rooms above co-founder Henry Plonsky's shoe and boot store on Larimer Street in Denver, Colorado. It officially incorporated in 1897 and grew to become Denver's largest modern Orthodox Jewish congregation. The congregation was first housed at 24th and Curtis Streets and then erected a new building at 16th and Gaylord. In 1969 BMH moved to its present location at 560 S. Monaco...

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Brief description of several early Jewish leaders of commerce, philanthropy, religion, and community as well as several Jewish lawyers, doctors, merchants, and politicians in Colorado.

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Graduates on stage at Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol with two rabbis. The women wear white robes while the men wear black robes and Talit, prayer shawls.

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Graduates on stage at Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol with two rabbis. The women wear white robes while the men wear black robes and Talit, prayer shawls.

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Exterior view of the front of the former Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol building on 16th and Gaylord. This was the location of Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol from 1921 - circa 1966.

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Exterior view of the front of the former Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol building on 16th and Gaylord. This was the location of Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol from 1921 - circa 1966.

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Moe Kattz is interviewed on the Atwood Colony, 10th Street Shul (Shearith Israel), living on 11th Street, the Marion Street Shul (Oheb Zadek) and Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol.

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Henry Plonsky sits, wearing a suit and holding a document in his hand. Polish-born Plonsky arrived in Denver in 1877. He helped form an Orthodox minyan above his store on Larimer Street. He became a successful shoe and boot merchant in partnership with Leopold Mayer and was instrumental in the establishment of the Orthodox Jewish congregation Ahavey Emunah in 1880 and later the Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol Synagogue and the Beth Joseph congregation.

Abstract Rabbi Charles E. Hillel Kauvar was a rabbi for 69 years at the Beth Ha Medrosh Hagodol (The Great House of Learning) Synagogue in Denver, Colorado. He was also a professor of rabbinical literature at the University of Denver for 43 years and helped establish the Center for Judaic Studies at the University. After he retired from teaching, the University of Denver honored him by establishing a Kauvar Chair of Hebraic Studies. Rabbi Kauvar was born in Vilna, Lithuania in 1879 and began as...

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Several men and women sit in the BMH Chapel listening to a speaker during the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society's Historic Jewish Denver Tour. Dr. Jeanne Abrams' sons sit in the front row.