Fannie Eller Lorber Papers

Fannie Eller was born in Geishen, Russia, in 1881. She and her family immigrated to America when Fannie was a teenager and moved to the West Colfax area of Denver in 1896. She married Jacob Lorber and became interested in the plight of "tb orphans." In 1907, Fannie Lorber, Bessie Willems, and some other eastern European women founded the Denver Sheltering Home for Jewish Children to care for children of Jewish tb patients at the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives and at the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society. Fannie Lorber served as President until her death in 1958. In 1920 the organization became a national one and eventually there were approximentally 100 fund-raising auxiliaries across the country. The organization went through various name changes and missions. From 1928-1952, it was called the National Home for Jewish Children in Denver; from 1953-1956, it was the Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children in Denver; from 1957-1972, it was the Children's Asthma Research Institute and Hospital (CARIH); and from 1973-1977, it became the National Asthma Center. In 1978, it merged with the National Jewish Hospital to become the National Jewish Hospital/National Asthma Center. It started as a residential treatment facility for children with intractable asthma and became a research hospital. In 2006, Fannie Lorber was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.