Temple Israel: A Frontier Synagogue and Museum

The group of Jews in Leadville traced their roots to Germany. They tended to be assimilationists and practiced Reform Judaism, including worship services largely in English, women as members of the congregation, and the use of a choir and organ. Later immigration to Leadville contained a larger proportion of Eastern European Jews who were more orthodox. During 1892 the congregation split with the orthodox members, establishing their own congregation, Kneseth Israel, which occupied a former church on West 5th Street.

Jews accounted for some 300 residents during the early 1880s and their presence was mostly felt in the retail trades. Leading names included leading merchant David May and the mine owning Guggenheim family, who went on to establish firms of national importance. Jews were also involved in a wide variety of social, philanthropic, and political activities and supported several organizations in addition to the synagogue. Leadville was host to a lodge of B’nai B’rith, both men and women’s Hebrew Benevolent Societies, and a religious school.

Building the Synagogue On August 7, 1884, the board of officers of the Jewish congregation met to let the contract for building a new synagogue. The land was acquired when Horace A.W. Tabor gifted title to David May as trustee of the Congregation Israel. The Temple cost $4,000 to erect and was dedicated on September 19, 1884 (Rosh Hashanah 5644). This new house of worship, along with the Hebrew Cemetery established in January 1880, reflected the size and strength of the Jewish community in Leadville.

Congregation and Building Evolve Rabbis were unavailable to Temple Israel, but lay leaders held regular services until about 1908. The decline of the Jewish population in Leadville began in the mid 1880s with many Jews gravitating towards larger cities and accelerated with the collapse of Colorado’s mining industry after 1893. The last recorded events here were in 1912 and the congregation had dissolved entirely by the 1920s. The building passed into private hands in 1937 and subsequently served as a family residence and a radiator repair shop, World War II dormitory, Episcopal vicarage, and apartment house. The Temple Israel Foundation acquired the building in 1992. In 2006, the building was heavily damaged by an electrical fire. This prompted the final round of reconstruction culminating in the Temple’s return to service during December, 2008, and the subsequent opening of the museum in 2012.