Harry S. Allen, a former Denverite, chair of the Beth Joseph Hebrew School and director of the Colorado Coordinating Council on Higher Education, passed away on Tu bAv, Aug. 10. 2014, in Jerusalem. He was 91.
The full moon of Av is the brightest moon of the year, when the Earth is closest to the moon, says his son Dr. Joel Allen. Like the moon, my father was not a man of fire or power.
He had the ability and righteousness to be able to capture the light around him and transmit it to his children with brilliance, clarity and purity.
Mr. Allen was born Sept. 28, 1922, in Denver to immigrant refugee parents from Mariampole, Lithuania. They were married in the only synagogue in Helena, Mont., in 1908.
When the family moved to Denver, he went to Cole Junior High and graduated East High school.
At his confirmation ceremony at the old BMH on Gaylord, the late Rabbi C.E.H. Kauvar whispered as he did to all confirmands, May you never be an orphan from the children of Israel, or the children of Israel an orphan from you.
With his late brother, Mr. Allen operated a gas station so they could raise enough money to attend DU Law School together. He obtained an MA in public administration in 1947. The family relocated to Nevada.
On his first date with his future wife Anna in 1944, the couple discussed making aliyah to what was then Palestine. The couple kept a kosher home after their marriage.
Later, when Harry S Trumans train made a whistle stop during his campaign for president, Mr. Allen confronted him about supporting the incipient state of Israel.
In Denver, he was the chief budget analyst, staff director of the Colorado Joint Budget Committee of the state legislature and director of Colorados Coordinating Council on Higher Education.
Committed to Denvers Jewish community, Mr. Allen chaired the Rocky Mountain Hillel Council, headed the Beth Joseph Hebrew School and supported JFS, ADL and Hillel Academy.
From 1965-1983, Mr. Allen was the director of institutional research at the University of Nebraska.
The couple made aliyah in 1983.
He studied, painted, enjoyed theological discourses and organized a class on the synthesis of modern philosophy in the works of Kant, Hegel, Marx and the Talmud.
Mr. Allen is survived by his wife of 69 years, Anna Allen; children Rabbi Morris Allen and Dr. Phyllis Goren, Rabbi and Mrs. Daniel Allen, Dr. Miram and Avrum Kluska and Dr. and Mrs. Joel Allen; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
