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.

The first recorded prayer session with at least ten people (a minyan) was on 12 September 1836 or the first day of Tishri, in the Jewish year 5597. The occasion was Rosh Hashannah, and they used a rented room over Max’s Grocery and Restaurant, on the corner of Second and Spruce Streets (now occupied by the St. Louis Arch grounds).

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. On 3 October 1841, the first Jewish congregation, United Hebrew Congregation, was formed, and the cemetery officially became the United Hebrew Cemetery. Today that area is the midtown of St. Louis, and the cemetery has long been relocated.

The congregation was also known as the Polish Congregation, and it was strictly Orthodox. Their first meeting place was rented at Broadway and Locust. Later, they moved to the Masonic Hall on First and Market Streets.

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.

By 1847, Emanu El Congregation, consisting mostly of German Jews, was formed, and in 1848, they established a second Jewish cemetery. By 1854, there were enough Jews in St. Louis to warrant a rabbi, and by 1855, the first synagogue was constructed. By then, Emanu El and a group called B’nai B’rith had combined, and the new congregation, called B’nai El, built their structure on Sixth Street between Gratiot and Cerre Streets.

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.

By 1900, there were about 40,000 Jews living in St. Louis. There were four Jewish cemeteries, four Jewish newspapers, two funeral chapels, a Hebrew Free School, and many Jewish charitable organizations. St. Louis today is home to about 60,000 Jews. There are numerous Jewish congregations and cemeteries as well as a Holocaust museum, theater, charities, schools, and a nationally-known hospital complex.

Cemetery Index

Many Jewish cemeteries have come and gone over the years, and Jewish cemetery information has been processed for all of the currently active ones. To access names that have been indexed in some of these cemeteries, click here.

Funeral Homes

Two funeral homes in St. Louis have served the Jewish community in recent years. They are Rindskopf-Roth Funeral Chapel and Berger Memorial. Volunteers have worked with the records of both homes and have partially indexed them. To access names that have been indexed in these funeral homes, click here.

Monument Company

One monument company in St. Louis creates most Jewish tombstones. That company is Rosenbloom Monument Company, 7511 Olive Street Rd.; St. Louis, MO 63130; 314-721-5070. They do not have a website, but they will answer queries in person, by writing, or phone.

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.

Marriage Records of Rabbi Adolph Rosentreter, 1886–1911; St. Louis: Eisenkramer, 1987.

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

Last modified: 08-May-2025 12:09