Our History

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.