Exhibit 31.1

                    Certification of Chief Executive Officer
            Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

I, Michael R. Kallet, President and Chief Executive Officer, certify that:

(1)  I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Oneida Financial
     Corp.;

(2)  Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue
          statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact
          necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances
          under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to
          the period covered by this quarterly report;

(3)  Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
          information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all
          material respects the financial condition, results of operations and
          cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in
          this quarterly report;

(4)  The registrant's other certifying officers and I are responsible for
          establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as
          defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal
          control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules
          13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have:

     a)   designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such
          disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our
          supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the
          registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to
          us by others within those entities, particularly during the period in
          which this quarterly report is being prepared;

     b)   designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused
          such internal control over financial reporting to be designed under
          our supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the
          reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial
          statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted
          accounting principles:

     c)   evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls
          and procedures and presented in this quarterly report our conclusion
          about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as
          of the end of the period covered by this quarterly report based on
          such evaluation; and

     d)   disclosed in this quarterly report any change in the registrant's
          internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the
          registrant's most recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected,
          or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant's
          internal control over financial reporting; and
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(5)  The registrant's other certifying officers and I have disclosed, based on
          our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial
          reporting, to the registrant's auditors and the audit committee of
          registrant's board of directors:

     a)   all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or
          operation of internal controls over financial reporting which are
          reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrant's ability to
          record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

     b)   any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other
          employees who have a significant role in the registrant's internal
          controls over financial reporting.


August 13, 2003                            /s/ Michael R. Kallet
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Date                                       President and Chief Executive Officer