Our Story
Our Mission
"Chesed Shel Emeth Burial Society serves the St. Louis Jewish community and fulfills a sacred trust to honor the memories of those who rest within our cemetery grounds. We are committed to maintaining, restoring and enhancing our cemetery grounds and facilities and to provide a safe, secure, serene setting for prayer and reflection. We contribute to community efforts to ensure that the indigent are provided with a proper Jewish burial. We further preserve our sites, graves, monuments and archives for the benefit of future generations and to facilitate educational, historical, and genealogical opportunities and inquiries."
Our Heritage
Chesed Shel Emeth — meaning "true kindness" in Hebrew — was founded in 1888 by members of the St. Louis Jewish community who recognized the sacred obligation to ensure that every Jewish person would receive a proper burial in accordance with halacha, regardless of their financial means.
The name itself reflects the highest form of kindness: an act done for someone who can never repay you. This principle has guided every decision made by the organization for over 135 years.
From its humble beginnings, Chesed Shel Emeth has grown to maintain two cemetery locations in the St. Louis area — the original White Road grounds in Chesterfield and the Olive/Hanley location — together serving as the final resting place for thousands of members of the St. Louis Jewish community.
Throughout its history, the organization has remained committed to its founding principles: dignified burial for all, preservation of the grounds for future generations, and service to the broader Jewish community of St. Louis.
Chesed Shel Emeth Society is formed by Jewish immigrants from Russia who found rituals and traditions of the local Orthodox synagogues unfamiliar. They formed a chevra kadisha (burial society) in order to bury their deceased with familiar rites. Chesed Shel Emeth obtains a hearse and an agreement with one of the Jewish cemeteries for a section of their own. The first Chesed Shel Emeth synagogue opens on O'Fallon Street.
Ground was acquired at Olive and Hanley which became the site of the original Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery.
The synagogue moves to Euclid and Page, where it resides until the early 1950's.
Following the westward movement of the Jewish community, the congregation builds a new synagogue at 700 North and South Road in University City. By 1958 a new wing is added to the building.
In the 1960's Chesed Shel Emeth begins to run out of space. The congregation purchases thirty acres in Chesterfield, again following the westward movement of the Jewish community. Called the White Road Cemetery it has the potentiality for growth over the next 200 years to hold the entire St. Louis Jewish population.
In recognizing the various denominations of Judaism, the Beth Shalom Cemetery opens and is a growing entity. It is available to all segments of the St. Louis Jewish community.
650 White Road, Chesterfield, MO 63017
Olive Blvd & Hanley Road, University City, MO