Description
On Thanksgiving Day, 1956, the American Jewish Tercentenary Committee of St. Louis dedicated this monument in commemoration of the first Jewish settlement in North America. The memorial consists of a sculptured stone base representing the great freedoms that a community of Jews envisioned when they arrived at New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1654. Designed by St. Louis sculptor Carl Mose, the base features representations of freedom of religion, freedom from tyranny, freedom from war and fear, and freedom from want and appropriate biblical verses, as well as a replica of the ship St. Catherine which brought the first Jews to America. A flagpole atop the base completes the monument. Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman, chairman of the committee, wrote in the dedication program that “the flag of America always rested on the great freedoms which come out of our spiritual tradition. That is why a flagpole resting on a great freedoms base is a fitting Tercentenary marker.” A separate inscription includes both sides of the Tercentenary seal in relief.The Tercentenary Monument now sits on a terraced granite platform about six feet above the ground. Private donors funded this renovation in 1989. Landscaping at the Kingshighway/Lindell entrance of Forest Park has also changed considerably in the fifty years since the dedication, but the monument itself has magnificently weathered the many decades since its installation. This memorial truly belongs not only to American Jews but to all St. Louisans as a reminder of the heritage of religious freedom and the strength of community.

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