Lyons, Jacques J[udah] and De Sola, Abraham. A Jewish Calendar for Fifty Years

In addition to calendars for 1853 to 1903, the most important feature of this volume is that it contains the first Jewish communal directory published in North America. It consists of a comprehensive detailed twenty-five page survey of synagogues, societies and other Jewish institutions across America, Canada and the Caribbean. The inclusion of such a communal survey in the volume was likely the initiative of Jacques J. Lyons (1813-1877). A native of Surinam and the Minister of New York’s Shearith Israel congregation, Lyons was the first to express a serious interest in American Jewish history and actively collected communal data and other such ephemera. Abraham De Sola (1825-1882), a native of London, moved to Montreal to assume the pulpit of Shearith Israel of that city. De Sola was the first Jew to be awarded a Doctor of Laws degree in the English-speaking world and became senior professor at McGill University. Despite being both a Jew and a British subject, de Sola was invited by President Grant to deliver the convocation at the opening of a Congressional session. Both Lyons and De Sola were vigorous upholders of traditional Judaism