Charles David Spivak (December25, 1861October16, 1927) was a Russian-born American medical doctor, community leader, and writer. He was one of the founders of the

Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society The Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) was a non-sectarian sanatorium to treat tuberculosis patients in Lakewood, Colorado. Founded in 1904, the sanatorium campus was also home to the first synagogue in Jefferson County, Colorado. In 1954 ...

in what is now

Lakewood, Colorado Lakewood is the List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 15 ...

. He was the editor of ''The Sanatorium'' as well as the first editor of the ''Denver Jewish News'' (now known as the

Intermountain Jewish News The ''Intermountain Jewish News (IJN)'' is a weekly newspaper serving the Denver- Boulder communities and the greater Rocky Mountain Jewish community (Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana). The newspaper was founded in 1913 and had a ...

. With Yehoash, he is also the author of what was once the premier

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

-English Dictionary.

Early life

Spivak was born Chaim Davod Spivakofsky on December 25, 1861, in the village of

Kremenchuk Kremenchuk (; , , also spelt Kremenchug, ) is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. The city serves as the administrative center of Kremenchuk Raion and Kremenchuk urban hromada within ...

in the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(now

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). In 1882, he and his friend Victor Yarros emigrated to the United States as political refugees.Dr. Charles Spvak
Jewish Museum of the American West. After working in New York City and Maine, Spivak moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1886. He studied medicine at Jefferson Medical School from 1887 to 1890 and later married a fellow Russian-Jewish immigrant, Jeannie Charsky, in 1893.Abrams, Jeanne (2009-05-31). Dr. Charles David Spivak: A Jewish Immigrant and the American Tuberculosis Movement. University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9780870819414.

Jewish Consumptive Relief Society

In 1904, the Spivak family moved to Denver for Jennie Charsky Spivak's incipient tuberculosis. Spivak practiced medicine in Denver and, in 1904, he became one of the founders of the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS)

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

sanatorium A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often in a health ...

. He was the Director and Secretary of the JCRS hospital from 1904 until his death in 1927. He was also the editor of ''The Sanatorium'', a journal from the JCRS Press and Propaganda Committee that included reports from the JCRS, medical advice, human interest stories, poetry, and literature. The campus of the JCRS hospital which Spivak became the American Medical Center in 1954 and is now the home of the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.

World War I Relief Work

In 1920, Spivak took a leave of absence from the JCRS to serve as a special U.S. medical commissioner in war-torn Europe. He was a representative of the Joint Distribution Committee and organized relief for Jewish refugees in Poland and Ukraine.

Personal life

Spivak was married to Jennie Charsky and the father of artist H. David Spivak (1893–1934), Deena Spivak, and Ruth Spivak. His wife, Jennie was also briefly the brother-in-law of Jacob Marinoff. Spivak is also the great-grandfather of

MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

awardee, Marla Spivak. and the great-great-grandfather of David Spivak. Spivak died on October 16, 1927. His will stated that his skeleton should be donated to science and the rest of his remains should be buried with patients: “That my body be embalmed and shipped to the nearest medical college for an equal number of non-Jewish and Jewish students to carefully dissect. After my body has been dissected, the bones should be articulated by an expert and the skeleton shipped to the University of Jerusalem, with the request that the same be used for demonstration purposes in the department of anatomy.” His skeleton is at the

Hadassah Medical Center Hadassah Medical Center () is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem (one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus) as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology ...

in Israel and other remains are buried at Golden Hill Cemetery in Golden, Colorado.

Family, Friends, and Associates

Family *

May Arno Schwatt May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. May is a month of Spring (season), spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May in ...

* Jacob Marinoff * Marla Spivak * David Spivak Friends * Rabbi Charles Kauvar of the

Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol-Beth Joseph Beth HaMedrosh HagodolBeth Joseph, known locally as BMHBJ or simply BMH, and for a period after 2012 also known as The Denver Synagogue, is an Orthodox synagogue located in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. History Beth HaMedrosh Hago ...

* Rabbi William S. Friedman of the Temple Emanuel (Denver) *

Yehoash (poet) Solomon Blumgarten (; 16September 187210January 1927), known by his pen name Yehoash (), was a Yiddish poet, scholar, and translator. Yehoash was "generally recognized by those familiar with iddishliterature, as its greatest living poet and one o ...

Associates * John F. Shafroth

Academic Research on Dr. Charles D. Spivak

*In 2009, Jeanne Abrams, Ph.D., published '' Dr. Charles David Spivak: A Jewish Immigrant and the American Tuberculosis Movement'' (2009) *In 2020, Thomas E. Keefe, Ed.D., published
This Day in RMCAD and the Historic JCRS , AMC Campus: A Diary of Care, Research, and Creativity
' (2020) *In 2022, Gracie Daniels published "A Blast the Past Past: RMCAD’s Campus History"

Legacy

*The University of Denver has a permanent online exhibit
Chasing the Cure
in which Dr. Spivak and the

feature prominently. *In 2019, Dr. Spivak and the

were featured in the "Lakewood: A 20th Century Journey" exhibition as part of Lakewood's 50th Anniversary celebration *In 2022, The Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design hosted the descendants of Charles D. Spivak and H. David Spivak. Professor Thomas E. Keefe presented a lecture on the Spivak Family and H. David Spivak in particular.Wooley, Bob. (2022). Lakewood celebration honors Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society founder’s family. ''Jeffco Transcript''. August 15, 2022. https://jeffcotranscript.com/stories/celebration-honors-jcrs-founders-family-on-historic-lakewood-campus,398912

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spivak, Charles 1861 births 1927 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States 20th-century American publishers (people) 20th-century American male writers American magazine founders Writers from Denver American writers of Russian descent Jewish Russian writers American people of Russian-Jewish descent Yiddish-language writers Writers from the Russian Empire