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Jewish

The first documented Jewish settler in St. Louis was Joseph Philipson, a merchant who came to the city in 1807. The number of Jewish residents slowly increased over the next thirty years. These early families were German Jews. They did not have a cemetery or synagogue.

In 1840, about forty or fifty Jews were living in St. Louis. They banded together to buy a plot of land, outside the city limits, for a cemetery. Within two years, they had also organized themselves into United Hebrew Congregation, and the cemetery officially became the United Hebrew Cemetery.

As a strictly Orthodox congregation, United Hebrew was just not liberal enough for many of the newly arriving German Jews. During the 1840s and 1850s, several new congregations began, and over the next few decades, congregations that embraced Reform Judaism as well as Orthodox Judaism became well entrenched in the city.

When Eastern European Jews began immigrating to the United States in large numbers, from 1880 to 1920, many made their way to St. Louis. For the most part, these new immigrants created a Jewish “ghetto.” They lived in an area on the near north side of St. Louis, between Cass Avenue on the north and Delmar Boulevard on the south, spreading westward from the riverfront. As the population grew, they continued moving to the west, first to Jefferson Avenue, then to Grand Avenue. By the 1940s, as the city expanded westward, so did the Jewish population into the Central West End of the city and to University City and Clayton in St. Louis County.

The St. Louis Genealogical Society sponsors the Jewish Special Interest Group. That portion of this website provides a list of St. Louis synagogues and cemeteries and a timeline of St. Louis Jewish history.

The St. Louis County Library Special Collections offers a special finding aid outlining the Jewish resources available at the library. An online bibliography of their Jewish book holdings is available at St. Louis County Library Finding Aids.


Bibliography

Bronson, Rosalind Mael. B’Nai Amoona For All Generations. St. Louis: Congregation of B’Nai Amoona, 1982.

Ehrlich, Walter. Zion in the Valley, The Jewish Community of St. Louis, Volume 1, 1807–1907. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1997.

Ehrlich, Walter. Zion in the Valley, The Jewish Community of St. Louis, Volume 2, The Twentieth Century. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2002.

Jewish Genealogical Society. Tracing Your Jewish Family Tree: Its Roots and Branches. St. Louis: Jewish Genealogical Society, 1997.

Krasner-Khait, Barbara. Discovering Your Jewish Ancestors. Salt Lake City, Utah: Heritage Quest, 2001.

Kurzweil, Arthur. From Generation to Generation. New York: Harper/Collins, 1994.

Makovsky, Donald I. The Philipsons: the First Jewish Settlers in St. Louis, 1807–1858. St. Louis: Judaism Sesquicentennial Committee of St. Louis, 1958.

Mokotoff, Gary. Where Once We Walked: A Guide to the Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust. Bergenfield, New Jersey: Avotaynu, 2002.

Mokotoff, Gary, and Warren Blatt. Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy. Bergenfield, New Jersey: Avotaynu, Inc., 1999.

Rosenkranz, Samuel. A Centennial History of Congregation Temple Israel, 1886–1986, 5647–5747. Creve Coeur, Missouri: Congregation Temple Israel, 1986.

Sack, Sallyann Amdur, and Gary Mokotoff. Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy. Bergenfield, New Jersey: Avotaynu, Inc., 2004.

Weiner, Miriam. Jewish Roots in Poland. Secaucus, New Jersey: Roots to Routes Foundation, 1997.

Weiner, Miriam. Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova. Secaucus, New Jersey: Roots to Routes Foundation, 1999.

Young, David A. St. Louis Jewish Community Archives: Guide to Archival Collections. St. Louis: St. Louis Jewish Community Archives, 1995.