Idaho Exhibition Hall

The Idaho Exhibition Hall

Idaho Potato Greeting PC

“The mining fever set of at Sutter’s Mill, California, in 1848, spread through all parts of the West.  Long before state lines were clearly drawn, prospectors were working in areas which would later become Nevada, Colorado, Montana, and Idaho.  Among them were certainly some Jews, but like many others of the early comers, their names were lost.”

— W. A. Goulder, Reminiscences of a Pioneer (1909)

Idaho became a state in 1890. The 1880 US Census listed 85 Jews in the territory.

Idaho Jews in public life before World War I included:

  • Moses Alexander, Mayor of Boise, 1897, Governor of State, 1915
  • Samuel Freund, State Assembly, 1910
  • Charles Himrod, Mayor of Boise, 1913
  • Max Mayfield, Boise City Council, 1912
  • Leo P. Greenbaum, Boise City Council, 1912

— Idaho Exhibits —

Moses Alexander: Jewish Governor of Idaho, First Jewish Governor in the United States

Meyer Cohn: Early Jewish Agriculturalist

Congregation Beth Israel/Ahavath Beth Israel of Boise, Idaho

Idaho Stamp