St. Louis Jewish Community Center

The St. Louis Jewish Community Archives is a specialized archive that collects, preserves and makes accessible documents and artifacts related to the religious, organizational, economic, cultural, personal, social and family life of Jews in the greater St. Louis area.

Currently the Archives houses more than 130 collections, totaling more than 700 cubic feet of material. Holdings contain photographs, documents, organizational papers, publications, audio-visual items, and recordings. Collections include those from families, businesses, congregations, and organizations dating from the mid-19th century to the present day. A large percentage of the collections are dated from the 1890s through the 1970s.

While the Archives does not house congregational records (i.e., birth and deaths), it does include information to assist researchers in finding out more about the community to which their St. Louis area Jewish ancestors belonged.

The Jewish Community Centers Association Collection (the successor to the YMHA/YWHA, commonly referred to as the “J”) includes information about programs, camps, newsletters, the Senior Olympics, and much more for the St. Louis area from 1891 to the present. The same is true of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis Collection (1902-present) and the Jewish Family & Children’s Service Collection (1879-present). Even individual collections often contain information about others, such as the Robert Lurie Collection which contains the radio scripts for the American Jewish Hour, a St. Louis program that ran from 1947 through 1954.

If we don’t have the records which help you search for your St. Louis Jewish ancestors, we are happy to help you find where that information might be located.

The St. Louis Jewish Community Archives will be present at the  “Society Showcase” on Tuesday, 07 May from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm in the Grand Ballroom Foyer. For a complete list of participants in the Showcase, please click HERE. We look forward to seeing you there.