Dr. Charles Spivak
The Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) circa 1907 |
Abstract
The Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) was founded
in Denver, Colorado in 1904 as a non-sectarian sanatorium to
treat tuberculosis (TB) patients in all stages of the disease.
The society was founded by a group of immigrant Eastern European
Jewish men, many of whom were themselves victims of TB. For decades patients flocked to Denver from all over the country
and were admitted free of charge. In the early years, the sanatorium
was headed by Dr. Charles Spivak as Secretary (1904-1927) and
by Philip Hillkowitz as President (1904-1948) and catered primarily
to Jewish patients in a distinctively Jewish environment. In
1954 the institution changed its mission to cancer research
and became the American Medical Center. Today it is known as
the AMC Cancer Research Center.
Scope and Content
The collection includes correspondence, patient records,
minutes, reports, and photographs from 1904 through 1973. The JCRS
records shed light on issues of tuberculosis treatment and medical
history, immigration and acculturation, the growth and development
of Colorado's Jewish community, and women's history.
Exhibit Information
The first two Annual Reports and patient records from 1905 and
1906 have been digitized and the images can be viewed in the JCRS
Exhibit. Additional years have been entered into the online database, but
the documents have not been digitized. Patient information can be viewed
by clicking on names in an alphabetical list and also through the
searchable database.
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