Abraham de Sola. The Study of Natural Science. An Adddress… at the Conversazione Held in the Hall of the Natural History Society of Montreal, on Wednesday, 9th March and Commemorative of the Visit of His Royal Highness Prince Arthur.

Abraham de Sola (1825-82) was a Canadian Rabbi, author, Orientalist, and scientist. Originating from a large and renowned family of Sephardic Rabbis and scholars, De Sola was recognized as one of the most powerful leaders of Orthodox Judaism in North America during the latter half of the 19th-century. In 1846, De Sola was elected minister of the Shearith Israel congregation of Montreal, Canada, and he arrived in that city early in 1847. He was president of the Natural History Society for several years, and addressed its members frequently on those branches of scientific investigation which came within its province. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon De Sola in 1858 by McGill University - the first instance of a Jew attaining such an honor in an English-speaking country. In 1873, by invitation of President Ulysses S. Grant’s Administration, De Sola opened the United States Congress with prayer. Indeed Abraham de Sola was a frequent visitor to the United States, and, through his pulpit addresses and numerous contributions to the press, he was recognized as a staunch upholder of Jewish tradition at a time when the struggle between the Orthodox and Reform wings of the community was at an acute stage. He was intimately associated with Isaac Leeser and on Leeser’s death was invited to become successor to his Philadelphia pulpit, which De Sola declined. For twenty years De Sola was a regular contributor to the “Occident,” and after Leeser’s death, he purchased the copyrights and stereotype plates of his works and continued their publication on his own.