United Hebrew Congregation’s rich and proud heritage began in 1837 when St. Louis was just a fledgling city growing up around the Mississippi River. And while St. Louis grew, so too did UHC. It endured through its formative stages, through the depression and through the war years to become a religious inspiration to the Jewish population of St. Louis.

It was prior to Rosh Hashanah in 1837 that two Jewish immigrants devised a way of celebrating the High Holy Days according to the faith of their fathers. Abraham Weigel, who was to become UHC’s first president, and Nathan Abeles, the first secretary, rented a room over a grocery on Fifth Street and Lucas Avenue and held the first "minyan" in St. Louis. In 1841, a constitution was adopted and United Hebrew was founded, the first Jewish congregation west of the Mississippi and only the 20^th in the entire country. Within a decade, UHC provided settlers with rituals for Jewish life…from officiating at Jewish marriages to supervising the baking of matzohs for Passover.

As the St. Louis Jewish population expanded, so did UHC. By 1870, after the construction of the first synagogue at Sixth Street between Locust and St. Charles, services were held on more traditional lines. But in 1870, a gradual swing to the Reform Movement began. By 1913 the wearing of yarmulkes was made optional.

In 1927, after UHC had made several more moves, a spacious sanctuary, an architectural gem was built on Skinker Boulevard. The edifice served the Congregation for six decades.

It was during the Skinker era that UHC took a stronger lead in the Reform Jewish community. The chanting of Kiddush during Friday evening services and the reading of the Torah portion on Shabbat mornings, set the tone for the present Bar/Bat Mitzvah services.

However, the movement west by the Jewish population continued. Land was acquired at Woods Mill and Conway Roads in West County and in 1977, the Ann and Ullus Gudder Educational Complex as built. And in 1989, after 62 years at Skinker, UHC moved to our present facility.

United Hebrew Congregation remains a modern Reform temple with approximately 1,400 member families. UHC offers a complement of programs that integrate religious, educational and social activities for its younger and older members.