Rabbi Yehudah Idel Idelson Collection

Rabbi Yehuda Idel Idelson was born in Navardok, Lithuania in 1874 and married Hadassah Bloch in 1896. Rabbi Idelson arrived in Denver, Colorado in about 1901, an acclaimed Torah scholar and commentator, to become the rabbi at Congreation Tifereth Israel. The small synagogue was incorporated by Polish Jews in 1901 and was located under the Colfax Viaduct in the east European Jewish immigrant neighborhood. Rabbi Idelson’s wife Hadassah and their daughter Dora joined him later in Denver. Finding chaos, Rabbi Idelson stepped in to create order in the institutions of Jewish life. Sympathetic to people suffering from tuberculosis, Rabbi Idelson organized a mass meeting in the synagogue to discuss helping the victims of consumption. He served as one of the original nineteen trustees of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society when it was first organized in 1903. He played an active role in soliciting support for the JCRS. In 1931, Rabbi Idelson became the spiritual leader of Khal Adat Yeshurun (Eldridge Street Synagogue located in New York City’s Lower East Side, where he remained until his death in 1943. The collection contains a copy of "Sermons for all the shabbatot of the years and the holidays. Lofty thoughts and ideas on topics in the highest reaches of the world of Judaism." It also contains digitized photographs of the Idelson family.