front cover of Zion in the Valley, Volume I
Zion in the Valley, Volume I
The Jewish Community of St. Louis, Volume I, 1807-1907
Walter Ehrlich
University of Missouri Press, 1997

St. Louis contains one of the largest Jewish communities in the interior of the United States. Yet, despite the important contributions of St. Louis Jews to the city's cultural and economic growth and to national and international Jewry, no history of their accomplishments has heretofore been written.

In this masterful book, Walter Ehrlich shows how the St. Louis Jewish community grew in two separate yet intricately related milieux. One was the internal socioreligious community, which centered on relations of Jews with fellow Jews. The other was the broader secular environment, in which Jews individually and collectively interacted with the non-Jewish population, assuming significant roles in the political, economic, social, and religious developments of one of the country's most important urban centers.

Employing many previously unused primary materials--especially congregational archives, organizational and business records, contemporary newspapers, and vivid personal memoirs--Ehrlich presents a fascinating description of how individuals and groups contributed to the growth and development of a major American urban area. He clarifies significant aspects of social and economic structure, mobility, and philanthropy within the Jewish community and integrates them within the broader framework of American society. In the process, Ehrlich provides a unique perspective on St. Louis history, as well as on American urban, ethnic, and immigration history.

Zion in the Valley is an invaluable contribution to the field of Jewish studies. It will appeal to scholars and students of Jewish, urban, and ethnic history, as well as to members of the broader St. Louis community.

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front cover of Zion in the Valley, Volume II
Zion in the Valley, Volume II
The Jewish Community of St. Louis, Volume II, The Twentieth Century
Walter Ehrlich
University of Missouri Press, 2002
The second volume of a two-volume history of the Jewish community of St. Louis, Zion in the Valley, Volume II covers the St. Louis Jewish population during the twentieth century, continuing where Volume I concluded. Published in 1997, Volume I deals primarily with the achievements of the German Jewish immigrants who dominated the St. Louis Jewish community during the nineteenth century. In the latter part of that century, a second large wave of Jewish immigrants, this time from Eastern Europe, began to arrive in St. Louis. Because the new immigrants differed in so many ways from their German precursors, two separate and decidedly hostile Jewish communities developed: the German/Reform community and the Eastern European/Orthodox community.
The most important development of the twentieth century, and the basic theme of this volume, was how the deep chasm between the two communities was bridged and a new, unified “American Jewish” community free from the earlier hostilities was born. This volume examines in insightful detail how that happened. It looks at Jewish religious and educational institutions; Jewish participation in local political, economic, and civic activities; Jewish cultural, philanthropic, and recreational life; and especially Jewish demographics within the larger St. Louis–area community.
Existing histories of St. Louis barely even allude to its Jewish population. This narrative is based almost entirely upon unused primary sources: archival records, newspapers, reminiscences, interviews, and organizational records. The two volumes together are not only important components of St. Louis history but also a vital part of American urban, ethnic, and immigration history.
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