Williams Family Pedigree

Rabbi, author, Orientalist, scientist, and communal leader; born in London, England, Sept. 18, 1825; died in New York June 5, 1882. He was the second son of David de Aaron de Sola (No. 22) and of Rica Meldola. Having received a thorough training in Jewish theology, he early acquired a profound knowledge of Semitic languages and literature. In 1846 he was elected minister of the congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Montreal, Canada, and he arrived in that city early in 1847.

In 1848 De Sola was appointed lecturer, and in 1853 professor, of Hebrew and Oriental literature at McGill University, Montreal, and he eventually became the senior professor of its faculty of arts. 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 him in 1858 by McGill University. This was probably the first instance of a Jew attaining that honor in an English-speaking country.

In 1872, by invitation of President Grant's administration, De Sola opened the United States Congress with prayer. The event was of significance, as De Sola was a British subject, and this was the first indication of a more friendly feeling between the United States and Great Britain after the dangerously strained relations that had been caused by the recently adjusted "Alabama Claims." Mr. Gladstone, then premier, as well as Sir Edward Thornton, the British ambassador at Washington, extended the thanks of the British government to De Sola.

Abraham de Sola frequently visited the United States, and, through his pulpit addresses and numerous contributions to the press, became recognized there as one of the most powerful leaders of Orthodoxy, 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, Samuel Myer Isaacs, Bernhard Illowy, J. J. Lyons, and other upholders of Jewishtradition, and on the death of Leeser was invited to become successor to his pulpit; but this and many similar offers he declined. For twenty years he was a constant contributor to Leeser's "Occident," and after the latter's death he purchased the copyrights and stereotype plates of his works and continued their publication.

The following is a list of Abraham de Sola's chief literary works:

1848. Scripture Zoology.
1852. The Mosaic Cosmogony.
1852. The Cosmography of Peritsol.
1852. A Commentary on Samuel Hannagid's Introduction to the Talmud.
1853. Behemoth Hatemeoth.
1854. The Jewish Calendar System (conjointly with Rev. J. J. Lyons).
1857. Philological Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic.
1858. Scripture Botany.
1860. The Employment of Anæsthetics in Connection with Jewish Law.
1861. The Sanatory Institutions of the Hebrews. Part i. (parts ii. and iii. appeared the following year).
1864. Biography of David Aaron de Sola.
1869. Life of Shabbethai Tsevi.
1870. History of the Jews of Poland.
1871. History of the Jews of France.
1874. Hebrew Numismatics.
1878. New Edition of the Forms of Prayer of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, with English translation, based on the versions of David Aaron de Sola and Isaac Leeser.
1880. Life of Saadia Ha-Gaon.

Abraham de Sola also contributed actively to the Jewish press, a large number of articles by him appearing in "The Voice of Jacob," "The Asmonean," "The British-American Journal," and other contemporary Jewish journals. His articles on Sir William Sawson's "Archaia," "Dawn of Life," and "Origin of the World" are specially noteworthy. He also edited and republished English's "Grounds of Christianity" and a number of educational works.