Temple Aaron
Second oldest Jewish synagogue in the West
Temple Aaron
✡ Jewish | Trinidad, CO
Temple Aaron is the second oldest continually operating Jewish synagogue west of the Mississippi. The town of Trinidad was incorporated in 1876 (the same year Colorado became a state), and its first mayor, Sam Jaffa, was Jewish. The local Jewish community formed Congregation Aaron in 1883 and, six years later, laid the cornerstone for this synagogue, a red-brick and stone structure overlooking the town center. According to a 2019 article in HaLapid, the unusual Eastern-Islamic design “was brought to America by German Jews who had been impacted by the Reform Movement in Judaism.” Colorado Public Radio calls it “exotic-revival style.” (Denver’s Temple Emanuel boasts a similar design.) In 2023, Temple Aaron was added to the list of National Historical Landmarks.