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Denver Sheltering Home for Jewish Children (1907-1927)

 Organization

Biography

The National Asthma Center (NAC) (1973-1978) had a series of names: the Denver Sheltering Home for Jewish Children (1907-1927), National Home for Jewish Children in Denver (1928-1952), Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children in Denver (JNHAC) (1953-1956), and the Children's Asthma Research Institute and Hospital (CARIH) (1957-1972). NAC was an independent institution from 1907 until 1978, when it merged with National Jewish Hospital to form the National Jewish Hospital and Research Center/National Asthma Center. The NAC campus in west Denver at 19th and Julian Streets sold in 1981. During the last part of the nineteenth century, Denver, Colorado, became a haven for those suffering from tuberculosis, "the white plague." However, no formal medical treatment facilities existed until the opening of the National Jewish Hospital (NJH) in 1899. Five years later, the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) began treating patients with advanced cases of tuberculosis. A Denver housewife, Fannie Lorber, became concerned about the plight of Jewish children left homeless by a parent's hospitalization or orphaned by a parent's death at NJH or JCRS. In 1907, she and her friends Bessie Willens and Sadie Francis organized other local East European immigrant women and founded the Denver Sheltering Home. For the next 51 years, Fannie Lorber presided over the volunteer board of the Home and was the driving force behind fundraising efforts. At first, funded entirely by the Denver Jewish Community, the Home's expansion eventually led to a system of fundraising Ladies' Auxiliaries throughout the United States. The Home initially sheltered only orphaned or neglected children of tuberculosis victims, but it soon expanded its mission to help combat delinquency among Denver's Jewish children. An arrangement was made with Judge Ben B. Lindsey to send first offenders to the Home rather than to a detention center. (Judge Lindsey created the Colorado Juvenile Court system.) The Home also began taking in orphaned and needy children from other cities, and by 1920, approximately 100 children were living on the expanded campus. The Home's founders aimed to provide a cultured, stimulating, and Jewish environment for the children that was as close to family life as possible, unlike most orphanages of the period. In 1939 the Home instituted the long-term residential treatment of children with intractable asthma. In the 1950s, medical, psychiatric, and research personnel were added to treat children with asthma and allergies. In 1951, Dr. Allan Hurst became the first full-time medical director, and Jack Gershtenson became the administrator, a position he held for nearly thirty years. The Home officially became a non-sectarian in 1953. Dr. Murray Pershkin, chief consultant to the home from 1940 until 1959, advocated '"parentectomy,"' the removal of the child from his or her home for up to two years. In 1957, the Children's Asthma Research Institute and Hospital was created. At the time, it was the only research facility in the country dedicated to asthma and allergic diseases. In 1966, Drs. Kimishige and Taruko Ishizaka, a husband and wife research team at CARIH, discovered immunoglobin E, the physiological basis for asthma. In 1972, CARIH became the National Asthma Center. By the 1970s, National Jewish Hospital had gone from treating tuberculosis to treating a broader range of respiratory diseases, including asthma. It was decided in 1978 that a merger of the two institutions would be beneficial. Patients remained at the NAC campus until 1981, when it was closed. Fannie Lorber was president from 1907 to 1958, Arthur Lorber was president from 1958 to 1975, and Charles M. Schayer was president from 1975 to 1978.

Found in 275 Collections and/or Records:

Nurse and Child at the National Asthma Center, between 1965-1988

 Item
Identifier: B089.12.0020.0003.00002
Abstract An unidentified nurse hugs a boy while she writes on a chalkboard at the National Asthma Center. The NAC's history began in 1907 as the Denver Sheltering Home for Jewish Children, which was a refuge for lower-income children whose parents were being treated for tuberculosis, or had passed away from tuberculosis. In 1928 the institution changed names to the National Home for Jewish Children in Denver. In 1953, the name changed to the Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children at Denver and...
Dates: between 1965-1988

Oral History Interview with Charles Milton Schayer, 1978 July 13

 Item
Identifier: B098.10.0009.00001
Abstract

Topics covered: About half of the interview is family history, biographical information; second half of interview covers experience on the NAC board.

Dates: 1978 July 13

Oral History Interview with Jennie Pells, 1978 August 1

 Item
Identifier: B098.10.0009.00002
Abstract

Topics covered: About half of the interview is family history, biographical information; second half of interview covers the children’s home, people involved with it, her mother (Sadie Francis) on board of home from 1908-1946 when she died, then Jennie was on the board; conventions.

Dates: 1978 August 1

Oral History Interview with Sam Robinson, 1979 August 13

 Item
Identifier: B098.10.0009.00003
Abstract

Topics covered: Brief family history, from Robinson farming family; grew up around the home, both parents and grandfather helped the home; came on board in 1934; name changes- Denver Sheltering Home, National Home for Jewish Children, National Asthma Center; functions, activities and anecdotes related to home.

Dates: 1979 August 13

Oral History Interview with Tillye Levy, 1976 October 7

 Item
Identifier: B098.01.0001.00003
Abstract "Tillye Levy, née Shulman, recounts her early childhood growing up in Central City, Colo. and later years in Denver, Colo. She describes her introduction to and continuing involvement in various Jewish charitable organizations in the Denver area.Born in Denver, Colo. in 1895, Mrs. (Sam) Levy grew up in Central City, Colo. where her father, Robert Shulman owned a clothing store and also the George Washington Mine. When she was a child, the family moved to Denver, Colo. after the...
Dates: 1976 October 7

Oral History Interview with Will and Faye Cohen, circa 1978

 Item
Identifier: B098.10.0009.00004
Scope and Contents From the Collection: RMJHS Oral Histories comprises audio and video cassettes of oral history interviews recorded by the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society. The recordings document Jewish history and culture in Colorado in the 19th and 20th century. The men and women interviewed for this collection are descendants of early Jewish pioneers in Colorado or were Jewish newcomers to the region at the beginning of the 20th century. Most of the interviewees were born between 1886 and 1927 and died in the 20th...
Dates: circa 1978

Pioneering Jewish Women Exhibit, 2009

 File
Identifier: B230.02.0007.0025
Abstract

File folder contains exhibit plan and item level records for the "Pioneering Jewish Women of Colorado".

Dates: 2009

President's Annual Report, National Home for Jewish Children at Denver for Year of 1937, 1928

 Item
Identifier: B089.02.0005.0001.00001
Abstract

Reports progress on buildings, gate, sidewalks, curbs and gutters; adoption of a new name for the facility (The Denver National Home for Jewish Children, formerly The Denver Sheltering Home for Jewish Children), the dedication of the Fannie E. Lorber Building; celebration of the Home's 20th Anniversary; acknowledgement of benefactors, and the death of the Director, Mrs. Hill Chernoff. Mimeographed copy.

Dates: 1928

President's Twenty-Ninth Annual Report, 1936 June 17

 Item
Identifier: B089.02.0005.0001.00011
Abstract

Reports on the 28th Anniversary Dinner of the National Home for Jewish Children in Denver; the formation of new auxiliaries including the Blossom Scholarship League, the Men's Club in Brooklyn, the Gotham Chapter in New York, and the New York Chapter; acknowledgement of existing auxiliaries; acknowledgement of benefactors; the Journal, a new publication; current needs of the Home and fundraising goals; In Memoriam for Sam Isaacson; appreciation to Board of Trustees, and committees.

Dates: 1936 June 17

Reception Room at the Denver Sheltering Home, circa 1920

 Item
Identifier: B089.12.0020.0028.00008
Abstract

Interior view of the reception room at the Denver Sheltering Home. The Denver Sheltering Home's history began in 1907, when it was a refuge for lower-income children whose parents were being treated for tuberculosis, or had passed away from tuberculosis.

Dates: circa 1920