Bozeman Magazine

Join The Extreme History Project for our July lecture by Ellen Baumler, "Montana's Pioneer Jewish Communities" This lecture is free and open to the public.

Jewish pioneers from Germany, Prussia, Austria and Poland as well as New York and Chicago came west on the heels of the gold rush. Opportunity drew these enthusiastic adventurers to new mining settlements where business as well as religious beliefs brought them together. Jews set up the first businesses at Bannack, Alder Gulch and at most of the smaller mining boomtowns. Jews seized these entrepreneurial opportunities and became miners, barbers, tailors, jewelers, bankers, attorneys, and cattlemen. But it was especially in the roles of merchant and provider that offered a stepping stone for these enterprising men—many of them immigrants from poor villages—to gain economic stability and civic status in a single generation. Without rabbis or synagogues, these early pioneers established benevolent societies, maintained holidays and traditions, and planted the roots of Judaism in Montana. As significant contributors to their adopted communities, their extraordinary legacy survives in landmarks that include Helena’s 1891 Temple Emanu-El, the first synagogue built between St. Paul and Portland; the National Landmark home of Henry Jacobs, Butte’s first mayor; and Solomon Content’s 1864 business block, today the centerpiece of the Virginia City National Historic Landmark.