Jews have been living in St. Louis since 1807, when Joseph Philipson, a merchant, arrived in the city. This early group of immigrants was primarily German. 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 Hashanah, 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).
St. Louis Genealogical Society sponsors an active Jewish Special Interest Group (SIG) that meets four times each year.
- Jewish SIG
- Timeline of Jewish History in St. Louis
- Jewish Cemeteries in St. Louis
- Jewish Funeral Home Records (Berger and Ridskopf-Roth)
- Jewish Clergy in St. Louis
- Jewish Congregations in St. Louis
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 in 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.
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.
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.
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.
Last modified: 25-Jul-2026 14:22
