In 1972, when Rabbi Stanley M. Wagner, came to the BMH, the synagogue had not really recovered from the deaths of Rabbis Samuel Adelman (1966) and Charles Eliezer Hillel Kauvar (1972). The synagogue was failing.

In 1972, no one in Denver had envisioned a Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Denver, although Rabbi Kauvar had taught at DU for decades.

No one had heard of a Holocaust Awareness Institute, a Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society, a Maimonides Society or Beck Archives — because they did not exist.

We doubt whether Rabbi Wagner himself had thought of these things in 1972. His focus, his charge, was to rebuild the BMH. And that he did, in relatively short order. He raised the funds to construct a large sanctuary, social hall and classrooms. He brought in new members. The synagogue that many thought dead — having lost hundreds of members to the burgeoning Beth Joseph and the fledgling Rodef Shalom — came back to life with a roar.