in the Cotton Exchange. By 1905 the Jews of St. Louis numbered about 40,000 in a total population of about 575,000. Today's Jewish population in the St. Louis area exceeds 60,000 in a metropolitan population of about 3,000,000 people. St. Louis County, MO holds nearly all of Missouri's Jewish community. 7% of St. Louis County's population is Jewish. Synagogues and community organizations including The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute are active in St. Louis. Other prominent Jewish people from St. Louis Jacob Lampert was a wealthy cigar manufacturer who lived in St. Louis. In 1912, he was Grand Master of the Masons in St. Louis. At the time of his death in 1921, he had the largest estate in the history of Missouri. His will was bitterly contested by eleven nephews and nieces, which was front-page news in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. Lee Falk creator of the comic strip characters the Phantom (often considered the first modern superhero) and Mandrake the Magician was born and raised in St. Louis. Joe Besser comic actor on film and television Danny Meyer New York restaurateur. Sam Altman Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist. CEO of OpenAI. Past President of Y Combinator. Andy Cohen Creator of Bravo Real Housewives franchise. He attended Clayton High School and now resides in New York City. See also Jewish American Jewish history in the United States (pre-20th century) List of Jewish Americans External links St. Louis Jewish timeline References 2. https://web.archive.org/web/20081028211332/http://www.stlgs.org/religionsJewish.htm Jewish Jewish St. Louis, Missouri Jewish