Records of the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (Denver, Colo.)

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the United States. By the 1860s, many physicians in the eastern United States had begun recommending that their patients leave the crowded cities and go to Colorado, which had cleaner air, a high altitude, and a sunny, dry climate, all thought to be helpful in the treatment of tuberculosis. Denver soon earned the nickname the "world's sanatorium" due to the hundreds of tuberculosis patients flooding into the city. In 1899, the Jewish community of Denver opened the first hospital in Denver for tuberculosis victims, the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives, funded largely by more modernized German Reform Jews. While this hospital was officially non-sectarian and treated all patients free of charge, it originally only accepted those with incipient tuberculosis, those who were in the early stages of the disease, as well as those who could afford to support themselves once they left the hospital. Additionally, the National Jewish Hospital discouraged the use of Yiddish and did not provide kosher food, making it difficult for Orthodox Jews to observe Jewish holidays.

In 1904, a small group of Eastern European immigrant working men founded the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) in the western part of Denver, Colorado as a non-sectarian sanatorium to treat tuberculosis patients in all stages of the disease, free of charge and in a more observantly Jewish environment. The sanitorium offered only kosher food and all of the Jewish holidays were observed. Among the founders and early leaders of the JCRS were Rabbi Elias Hillkowitz, a prominent west side rabbi, his son, Dr. Philip Hillkowitz, who served as the president of the organization from 1904 until his death in 1948, Dr. Charles David Spivak, who acted as the executive secretary until his death in 1927, Dr. Adolph Zederbaum, the JCRS' treasurer, Louis Robinson, Abraham Judlovitz, and noted Yiddish poet Solomon Bloomgarden (Yehoash), who came to Denver for the tuberculosis cure in 1899, as well as many others from Denver's Eastern European Jewish community. The JCRS received financial support, as well as patients, from Jewish communities across the United States, often in the form of small donations and numerous ladies auxiliaries raised money to fund buildings and programs.

The sanitorium officially opened on September 4, 1904 with seven patients in wooden tent-cottages, designed to provide a maximum of exposure to the fresh air. A farm was established on the sanitorium's grounds, providing fresh milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables as well as the opportunity to work outside for those patients who were healthy enough to do so. There was also a social-services department, a library, a dentist's office, a pharmacy, a technical school, a cooperative store, a post office, a barber shop, a bookbindery where some of the healthier patients could work, and a synagogue, built in 1911, which was in daily use. There was also a monthly publication, The Sanatorium, which had a Yiddish section curated by Yehoash. This section contained Yehoash's own poems as well as contributions of other patients.

With the widespread availability of antibiotics in the 1940s and 1950s, tuberculosis ceased to be a major public health epidemic in much of the world. In 1954, the JCRS changed its focus to cancer research and became the American Medical Center, later the AMC Cancer Research Center and now the AMC Cancer Fund. In the 50 years of its existence, the JCRS provided free tuberculosis treatment to 10,000 patients, many of them observant Jews.