Jewish Consumptives Relief Society (JCRS)
Patient Applications 1904-1940
Denver, Colorado

Updated October 2023! This surname index contains 9,184 patient applications found in the collection of the Jewish Consumptives Relief Society (JCRS) in Denver, Colorado, 1904-1940. Additional patients 1941-1954 will be added as this is an active, ongoing project.

The Jewish Consumptive Relief Society (JCRS) was founded in Denver, Colorado in 1904 as a non-sectarian sanatorium to treat tuberculosis patients in all stages of the disease. It was the second Jewish hospital for tuberculosis in Denver at the time; the first was National Jewish Hospital, which primarily catered to the German-American Jewish community.

JCRS was founded by a group of immigrant Eastern European Jewish men, many who were themselves victims of tuberculosis. For decades, patients flocked to Denver from throughout North America and were admitted free of charge. This hospital catered primarily to Jewish patients in a kosher environment with Yiddish and English communication. In 1954, the institution changed its mission to cancer research, becoming the American Medical Center.

The collection is of significant genealogical importance. A standard patient file often includes multiple applications, landsmanshaften affiliation, and personal correspondence between the hospital, patient, and the patient's family in other American and Canadian cities. There are often names and addresses of relatives, ages of a patient's children, Denver burial location, and the patient's birth city and country. The earliest death dates in the collection are of importance because the State of Colorado did not always issue death certificates at the turn of the twentieth century, potentially making the JCRS patient file the only record of death until the 1920s.

The index includes:

1. SURNAME: patient surname
2. GIVEN NAME: patient given name
3. OTHER SURNAME: other patient surname
4. OTHER GIVEN NAME: other patient given name or nickname
5. DATE OF DEATH: date of death
6. ADMIT AGE: age at which patient was admitted
7. BIRTH CITY: patient's birth city
8. BIRTH STATE: patient's birth state
9. BIRTH COUNTRY: patient's birth country
10. ARRIVAL IN USA: patient's immigration year
11. MARITAL STATUS: marital status
12. OCCUPATION: patient's occupation
13. CONTRACTED CITY: city where patient contracted TB
14. CONTRACTED STATE: state where patient contracted TB
15. PID #: patient identification # for file request from University of Denver

This index contains a portion of available data. Once a person has been identified in the index, a single full patient file can be requested at no cost through the Beck Archives of Rocky Mountain Jewish History at the University of Denver by contacting David Fasman at david.fasman@du.edu. For multiple patient file requests, contact the Beck Archives to discuss.

Note that in some cases, there may be more than one admit date and PID # for a single patient. These are currently filed as separate folders.

The Jewish Genealogical Society of  Colorado (JGSCO) was awarded the IAJGS Stern Award in 2003 to increase visibility of and access to this collection.

Many thanks to JGSCO volunteers in the early 2000s including Myndel Cohen z’’l, Ann Fendrich, Ellen Kowitt, Terry Lasky, Eileen Price, Ed Richard z’’l, and Rita Jo Tensly, as well as Thyria Wilson of the DU Beck Archives staff.

This collection has been updated in 2023 to include an additional 2,000 patient names. Additional data will be entered by JGSCO volunteers led by Ellen Beller, Sue Lauscher, and Ellen Kowitt in the future. See an example of digitized file contents here: https://specialcollections.du.edu/object/cc664f1c-c363-4f2c-8acd-2735ad1b1372#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2034%2C0%2C7585%2C4667

As of September 2023, a direct link to the database housed at the University of Denver is https://jcrs.library.du.edu/jcrs.