Not one lifetime but nearly two are encompassed in the sixty years that separate the initial Shabouth sermon of a twenty-two-year-old rabbi in a small Manchester, England, congregation and the reception yesterday tendered Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes by the New York Board of Jewish Ministers on the occasion of the anniversary of the celebration of his sixty years in the ministry.
The rabbi emeritus of the Portuguese Synagogue, Shearith Israel, was the guest of his fellows of the rabbinate in the vestry rooms of Shearith Israel. He was the cynosure of all eyes and the subject of all laudatory addresses delivered at the meeting.
Among those who spoke were Rabbi David de Sola Pool, Rabbi Mendes’ successor at Shearith Israel; Dr. Bernard Drachman of Dichron Ephraim Synagogue; Rabbi Max Drob, president of the Board of Jewish Ministers, who presided, and Dr. Mendes himself.
Dr. Mendes, who consecrated himself to the service of God on the night of his bar mitzvah, comes of a long line of rabbis. His father, Abraham Pereira Mendes, was minister of the Sephardic Congregation in Birmingham, England, when his third child, Henry, was born. He had previously been Chazan in Sephardic communities in Jamaica, British West Indies, and later he became dayan and preacher in the ancient Sephardic community of London. Years later in 1882 after his son had taken the leadership in the restoration of the ancient Jeshuath Israel Synagogue in Newport, R.I., he came to this country as minister of that synagogue, oldest American congregation.
Dr. Mendes’ maternal grandfather, David Aaron de Sola, was the cantor preacher of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue of London, the translator of the Sephardic prayer book and the author of many volumes in English. An uncle, Abraham de Sola, professor at McGill University, was minister of the Sephardic community in Montreal while another uncle Samuel de Sola, became Chazan of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London.
HIS FORBEARS
As a matter of fact the long and distinguished line of de Sola rabbis, scholars, physicians, martyrs and statesmen carries Dr. Mendes directly back to the ninth century. His mother’s mother, Rica Meldola, was daughter of Raphael Meldola, the chief rabbi of the Sephardics of England, and sister of David Meldola, chief rabbi in succession to his father. For thirteen generations, Meldolas were chief rabbis in Mantua, Florence, Piza or Leghorn.
Thus Dr. Mendes was, in the manner of speaking, born to the rabbinate. And now at the age of eighty-two he can look back at his long career with the fondness that comes with the knowledge of a job well done, a heritage fulfilled.
At the age of twenty-two the young rabbi became the first Chazan and minister of the newly organized Sephardic congregation in Manchester. Three years of service and an invitation came from America to accept the position of preacher at Shearith Israel, New York’s oldest congregation, the only one in the metropolis that antedates the Revolutionary War. For forty-eight years, until 1925, Dr. Mendes had actively served Shearith Israel; since then he has been rabbi emeritus.
HIS COMMUNAL WORK
Dr. Mendes’ Jewish communal activities have been as wide as they have been varied. Locally he organized the Montefiore Hospital, the Crippled Children’s East Side Free School and the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes. A founder of the American Hebrew magazine he has long campaigned for laws protecting Sabbath day observers and against the introduction of sectarian exercises into public schools. As a member of the American Jewish Committee and the Alliance Israelite Universelle, he took part in campaigns to protect and secure the rights of Jews throughout the world
One of the pioneer Zionists, Dr. Mendes took a leading part in the introduction of the movement to this country. In his memoirs he has written:
“Soon after Dr. Herzl began his great movement, Dr. Gaster, chief rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese community of England, called upon me in London where I was visiting, saying that Dr. Herzl wished to meet me. They both called the next day and Dr. Herzl asked me if I would undertake to introduce the Zionist movement in the United States. I readily and eagerly consented. On my return to the States I formed the first Zionist association, becoming its president and I served for one year on the Actions Committee. My interest in Zionism has never been diminished but I had to withdraw from active participation.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
