1887 - Frances Wisebart Jacobs, "Mother of Charities"

1887 - Frances Wisebart Jacobs, "Mother of Charities"

Frances Wisebart Jacobs more than earned her nickname as the “Mother of Charities” as she founded and aided many charities throughout her lifetime. For the Jewish pioneers in Denver, she founded the Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society in order to help them with their tuberculosis and giving them coal, soup, clothing, physicians and soap. It still runs today as Jewish Family Service of Colorado and as a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization that serves over 20,000 people per year. Back then, tuberculosis was a deadly tragedy and when she thought the Society wasn’t enough, she helped create the Denver's Jewish Hospital Association, which stopped the disease from being an epidemic. She also founded the Denver Ladies Relief Society to speak for equal rights for women in the workplace, the adversity of homeless women, and the need to separate male and female prisoners. She would go on to advocate for free kindergarten classes, and had a hand in creating the United Way charity organization.

Beck Archives, Special Collections, Penrose Library and CJS, University of Denver

Unknown

Frances Wisebart Jacobs

Source: Center for Judaic Studies, University of Denver.(2007). "A Legacy of Caring: Jewish Women in Early Colorado: Frances Wisebart Jacobs – Mother of All Charities". Retrieved on March 8, 2013 from http://www.du.edu/cjs/jacobs.html

Link: Jewish Women's Archive 

University of Denver

University of Denver

University of Denver

Medium: Photograph

English

Figures

Women

Historic