Missouri Exhibition Hall
Starting with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Jews from Schwihau, Bohemia started settling in St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Troy and Perryville.
The first known Jewish settler was Ezekiel Block.
The Pioneer Jews engaged primarily in merchandising and invested in other ventures.
Most early Jewish pioneers married Christians. One married into the Philipson family, the first Jewish family in St. Louis.
1841 was the founding year of the first congregation in St. Louis, when there were less than 100 Jews living there.
By 1850, there were roughly 700 Jews living in St. Louis.
Today, Missouri’s Jewish population is about 60,000.
St. Louis World’s Fair, vintage postcard
Early Jewish Organizations of Missouri
United Hebrew Congregation of St. Louis: The First Synagogue West of the Mississippi
Early Jewish Pioneers of Missouri
Daniel Block: Helped to Merge the First Three Synagogues into B’nai El Congregation of St. Louis
Isaac Baer: Early Jewish Pioneer of St. Louis, Missouri
Louis Bauman: Early Jewish Pioneer Jeweler of St. Louis, Missouri, 1840’s
Eleazer Block: the First Jewish Lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri in the Early 1820′s
Isidor Bush: Jewish Pioneer: “A Man for all Seasons,” St. Louis, Missouri
Moritz & “Jetta” Freund and the Freund Baking Company of St. Louis, Missouri from 1856
Meyer Friede: Early Jewish Pioneer of St. Louis & First Jewish Legislator of Missouri
Isaac Fuld: Early Jewish Pioneer Merchant and Synagogue Organizer of St. Louis, Missouri
Adolph Isaacs: Early Jewish Pioneer Clothing Merchant of St. Louis, Missouri
Samuel Jacks & Morris Jacks: Cousin Jewish Pioneers of St. Louis, Missouri
Max Littmann: Jewish Hero of Indian Wars in the “Wagon Box Fight”
David May: Pioneer Jewish Merchant, Founder of May Company & His Family
Dr. Simon Gratz Moses: the First Jewish Physician in St. Louis, Missouri in the Early 1840’s
Dr. Simon Pollak: Early Jewish Pioneer Doctor of St. Louis, Missouri, 1840’s+
Morris Rosenheim: Early Jewish Pioneer Merchant of St. Louis, Missouri
Rosa Fassel Sonneschein: Early Zionist & Newspaper Publisher
Some of the Early Jewish Pioneers of St. Louis, Missouri, 1840’s – 1850’s
