Rabbi C. E. Hillel Kauvar Papers

Rabbi Charles E. Hillel Kauvar was born in Vilna, Lithuania in 1879 and came to the United States when he was 13. He got a master’s degree from Columbia University and attended the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. After graduation from the seminary in 1902, he became rabbi at the Beth Ha Medrosh Hagodol (The Great House of Learning) Synagogue in Denver, Colorado. He was a rabbi at the BMH for 69 years. In 1909 the rabbi received his doctoral degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary and also married Belle Gertrude Bluestone in New York. He was also a professor of rabbinical literature at the University of Denver for 43 years and helped create 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 assisted in establishing many of Denver’s Jewish organizations, including the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society, the Community Chest (now United Way), General Rose Memorial Hospital, the Allied Jewish Council and founded Denver’s first Hebrew school. Rabbi Kauvar was one of the first English-speaking, Orthodox rabbis in the West and introduced traditional Judaism within a modern American context. Rabbi Charles and Belle Kauvar were both ardent Zionists and aided refugees in Israel after World War II. Rabbi Kauvar died in 1971 and is buried in Israel.