Where we are:
Federation
The Saint Louis Jewish Federation was established in 1901. It maintains a website that lists all local resources and provides general information about any Jewish agency in St. Louis. The Federation is the largest Jewish philanthropic organization in St. Louis, whose $10.6 million Annual Campaign supports a network of 48 local, national and international human and social service organizations. These include:
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The St. Louis Jewish Light
is the St. Louis Jewish community newspaper provides news,
entertainment and local information for more than 40 years.
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The Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library
houses more than 22,000 volume collection, including CDs,
audio tapes, videos, DVDs and periodicals, in the Jewish
Federation Building.
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Jewish Family
& Children's Service provides social services, including mental health services,
child abuse prevention, homemaker services for the elderly,
food pantry assistance, chaplaincy visitation, and eldercare
consultation.
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The Jewish
Community Relations Council promotes a just,
democratic and pluralistic society, the security and safety
of the local Jewish community, Israel and world Jewry.
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The Jewish Community Center
provides educational,
cultural, social, Jewish identity-building
and recreational programming. The JCC of St. Louis currently
serves nearly 12,000 members.
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The Holocaust Museum and Learning Center
provides a chronological history of the Holocaust augmented
with personal testimonies by survivors and witnesses who immigrated
to St. Louis. Each year, over 22,000 students from middle schools,
high schools, and colleges visit the Museum.
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The Jewish Food
Pantry
provides food and personal hygiene items to those in need.
Other Jewish Resources
Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis: The Vaad Hoeir has supplied the essential foundations for Jewish life in St. Louis for over 80 years. A staff of rabbinic coordinators supervises manufactured kosher products, all local kosher butchers, bakeries, and food establishments, and oversees the preparation of all local kosher catered events. The Vaad Hoeir is dedicated to maintaining local Shechita (kosher slaughter) providing fresh glatt kosher meat for the St. Louis community. The Vaad Hoeir certifies kosher products with its "OV" label. The Vaad inspects, supervises and certifies the ingredients and products of many nationally recognized companies. The Vaad Hoeir is a member of the Association of Kashrus Organizations.
Affiliated with the Vaad Hoeir are several important communal organizations:
- The Beth Din Tzedek of Greater St. Louis is an internationally recognized Rabbinical Court that rules on religious disputes. The Beth Din issues, free of charge, "teudos ravakus/teudot ravakut", the official documents certifying the marriagability of Jewish men and women.
- The Vaad Hoeir maintains two kosher mikvas/mikvaot open every night of the week, essential for the observance of Jewish family life, traditional Jewish weddings and ritual conversions. The Sylvia Green Memorial Mikvah, located at 4 Millstone Campus is open Saturday through Thursday evenings. The Rebbetzin Nacha Rivkin and Rebbetzin Hinde Zuckerman Memorial Mikvah, located at Young Israel is used on Shabbos/Shabbat and the Yomim/Yamim Tovim. The community keilim mikva/mikvat keilim is available for use the Monday through Friday during regular business hours.
- The Vaad Hoeir also provides the services of an halachically certified sofer or trained Jewish scribe, who writes and repairs Torah scrolls, tefillin, and mezzuzas/mezzuzot, and writes the gittin essential for a Jewish religious divorce.
- The Moas Chitim/Tzedekah Committee provides matzah and other Pesach needs for needy Jewish families and helps arrange resources for other times of the year.
- The Ahavat Chesed Society arranges Jewish taharas/taharot and burials.
- The St. Louis Community Eruv is responsible for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the St. Louis Eruv which encompasses 10 synagogues.
- Tpheris Israel Chevra Kadisha Congregation is an Orthodox synagogue in Chesterfield, Missouri, a community about 10 miles west of Young Israel. They maintain a mivkah and a keilim mikva/mikvat keilim, and maintain an eruv around the area.
- The Torah MiTzion Kollel is located in Young Israel of Saint Louis and promotes the ideals of Torat Eretz Yisroel/Yisrael (religious Zionism), Am Israel, Talmud Torah, and Shmiras Hamitzvos/Shmirat Hamitzvot.
- The St. Louis Kollel offers classes in Jewish thought and classic texts. The faculty of twelve rabbis provides educational opportunities for all Jews in St. Louis. The bookstore also carries a wide assortment of Jewish books as well as tefillin, mezuzos/mezuzot, and other religious articles.
- Ohr Atid is a community organization that provides education to Jewish special-needs children, including a day-school based program in Jewish day-schools.
- The Washington University in Saint Louis, Department of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies, with twenty faculty, provides instruction leading to the M.A. degree in Jewish Studies in fields in the areas of Jewish history and Hebrew literature, in such departments as History, Comparative Literature, and Asian Languages and Literatures.
- The Halachic Organ Donor Organization is a non-profit organization that saves lives by encouraging organ donation from Jews. It educates Jews about the halachic and medical issues surrounding organ donation. Rabbi Shulman is a Rabbinic Board Members; please contact him with any questions.
Kosher food in St. Louis
Eateries:
- Gokul vegetarian Indian restaurant
- Krispy Kreme donuts in the St. Louis area are certified kosher-dairy
- Simon Kohn's Deli
- Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
- Breadsmith Bakery
Bakeries:
- Breadsmith of St. Louis
- Toby's Challah House
- select Schnucks and Dierbergs Groceries
Hotels:
- Adam's Mark
- Crown Plaza
- Ritz Carlton Coronado Ballroom
- The Westin
Many local groceries have a large assortment of Kosher products, including Dierbergs, Food for Less, Global Foods, Schnucks, and Trader Joe's.
Day Schools
- Esther Miller Bais Yaakov (9-12th grade girls): Orthodox
- Epstein Hebrew Academy (2 years - 8th grade): Orthodox
- Missouri Torah Institute (9-12th grade boys): Orthodox
- Torah Prep (2 years - 8th grade): Orthodox
- Yeshivat Kadimah High School, Orthodox
- Community Day School: K - 8th grade
Jewish Education and Outreach Organizations
Synagogues
- Orthodox:
- Agudas Israel of St. Louis
- Bais Abraham Congregation
- Congregation Bais Menachem-Chabad
- Nusach Hari B'nai Zion Congregation
- Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol Sha'arei Chesed ("U City Shul")
- Tpheris Israel Chevra Kadisha Congregation
- Young Israel of St. Louis
- Traditional: 1
- Conservative: 2
- Reform: 9
- Reconstructionist: 3
The Saint Louis Area
- Anheuser-Busch Brewery: the largest (100-acre) brewery in the world
- Butterfly House: 8,000 sq.ft. in Faust Park
- City Museum: an eclectic mixture of children's playground and architectural museum. Created by a local artist, this is a unique St. Louis treasure
- Forest Park: opened 1876 and now has 1,371 acres (500 acres larger than NYC's Central Park) and includes:
- St. Louis Art Museum: more than 30,000 objects in its 1904 World's Fair site
- Missouri History Museum: located in the Thomas Jefferson Memorial
- The Muny: the nation's oldest and largest outdoor theatre
- St. Louis Science Center: exhibits, IMAX theater, planetarium
- Saint Louis Zoo: one of the best zoos in the country. Includes the aviary from 1904 World's Fair.
- Gateway Arch: this 634 feet tall inverted stainless steel catenary arch is the largest in the U.S. (more than twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty)
- International Bowling Hall of Fame: the Cooperstown of Bowling
- The Magic House: the St. Louis children's musuem. named the number one family attraction for child appeal by Zagat--beating Walt Disney World!
- Missouri Botanical Garden: in the top three botanical gardens in the world, in a 79-acre urban setting
- Museum of the Dog: 14,000 sq. ft. in 570-acre Queeny Park
- Museum of Transportation: one of the world's largest collections of transportation vehicles located on 150 acres
- Saint Louis Symphony: one of the finest in the nation
- Scott Joplin House: 1902 home of the King of Ragtime
Universities
- Fontbonne University
- Harris-Stowe University
- Maryville University Of Saint Louis
- Saint Louis University
- University Of Missouri-St Louis
- Washington University In St Louis
- Webster University
Professional Sports
- Aces Tennis
- Blues Hockey
- Cardinals Baseball
- Gateway International Raceway
- River Otters Ice Hockey
- River City Rascals Minor League Baseball
- St. Louis Steamers Soccer
- Swarm Basketball
Day Trips from St. Louis
- Historic St. Charles: founded in 1769 not far from Daniel Boone's homestead
- Confluence of Missouri and Mississippi Rivers
- Meramec Caverns: largest single cave formation in the world with 26 miles of underground passages.
- Hannibal: Mark Twain's hometown; founded on the banks of the Mississippi River in 1819
- Lincoln Presidential Library: a 200,000 sq.ft. complex in downtown Springfield, Illinois.
- Katy Bike Trail: America's longest "rails-to-trails" project (225 mile bike path that follows Lewis & Clark's path up the Missouri River)