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A Jewish calendar for 50 years containing detailed tables of the Sabbaths, new moons, festivals and fasts, the Torah portion, and corresponding secular dates from 5614(1854) - 5664(1904). Preceded by an introductory essay on the Jewish calendar system, tables to continue the calculation for another century and list of haphtorot and weekly portions following the rites of Portuguese and German Jews. An important list of Jewish religious and charitable institutions operating (pp.148-173) in the U.S., Canada, and the West Indies in 1854.
R. Abraham b. David Aaron de Sola (1825-1882) was a renowned rabbi, scholar, and lecturer whose popularity went far beyond the bounds of Montreal. Born in London to a prominent Sephardic Jewish family, one on 15 children, he gained recognition at a very young age for his writings on Eastern languages and literature, as well as on Jewish history and scripture. In 1847, at only twenty-two years of age, he moved to Canada to become the Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation of Montreal, a community he continued to serve for thirty years. In 1853, McGill invited de Sola to become Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature, and later also appointed him Lecturer in Spanish Literature. The great popularity of his lectures is perhaps best demonstrated by an extraordinary invitation in 1872: he traveled to Washington, D.C. to deliver the prayer which opened that year’s session of the United States Congress. He was the first non-Christian theologian to perform this ceremony, and his speech was very well received.
R. Jacques Judah Lyons (1813–1877), hazzan, rabbi, and communal leader, was born in Surinam. He served as a hazzan of Congregation Neve Shalom in Paramaribo (1833–37). Emigrating to the United States, he served for two years as hazzan of Congregation Beth Shalom of Richmond, Virginia, and in 1839 began his ministry at the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States, the Spanish-Portuguese congregation Shearith Israel of New York City. Lyons, who was unyielding in his orthodoxy, served as superintendent of the Polonies Talmud Torah School attached to his congregation, as president of Hebra Hased va-Emet, the congregation's benevolent society, and as a director of the Sampson Simson Theological Fund, and was a founder of the Jews' Hospital. Lyons and Abraham de Sola of Montreal prepared and published A Jewish Calendar for Fifty Years (1854), including an essay on the Jewish calendar system and historical data about Jewish communities in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies. From before 1861 to the end of his life, Lyons gathered data and sources on the history of the Jews of the U.S. Although he died before completing the work, this collection was donated to and calendared by the American Jewish Historical Society and is a most significant source for students of early North American Jewish history.
Lyons is memorialized in the poem "Rosh Ha-Shanah, 5638" by his niece Emma Lazarus. |
