Sola, Abraham de, 1825-1882

• De Sola, Abraham, 1825-1882

Abraham de Sola was born in 1825 In London to David Aaron de Sola, Cantor in the Bevis-Marks Synagogue, and Rica Meldola, daughter of prominent publisher and scholar, Raphael Meldola. Abraham de Sola moved to Montreal in 1847 upon accepting the position of Reverend of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue (Shearith Israel), Canada's oldest synagogue. Over the ensuing fifty-seven years, de Sola carved out a career and reputation as a leading scholar and leader of the Jewish community; not only in Canada but also in the United States.

Abraham de Sola was known as an eloquent and prolific lecturer as well as a man of broad interests. During his long career, de Sola addressed the Montreal Mercantile Library Association, the Montreal Literary Club, the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, the Montreal Mechanics Institute, and the Natural History Society of Montreal (of which he served as president from 1867-1868). Many of his speeches and sermons, delivered in English, were published in periodicals and the contemporary Jewish press. Although he was chiefly concerned with the reconciliation of religion and science, the articles' diverse subjects reflect the eclectic nature of his intellectual interests.

In 1848, a year after arriving in Canada, McGill College appointed Abraham de Sola as lecturer in Hebrew and rabbinical literature, and in November 1853 a professor of Hebrew and Oriental literature; a position he held until his death in 1882. He also taught philology and Chaldean and Spanish language at McGill, as well as Hebrew at Presbyterian College. Abraham de Sola wrote medical studies on the rabbinical dietary laws and the use of anesthetics which appeared in major medical journals and were reprinted as pamphlets. After the publication of his authoritative study Sanatory Institutions in 1858, McGill made him a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa), making de Sola the first Jew to receive the honor in any English-speaking country. While at McGill, he worked closely with eminent scientists Sir William Dawson and Sir William Edmond Logan.

In addition to his publications, Abraham de Sola became a book distributor in 1873 with his brother-In-law Jesse Joseph, purchasing the copyright of prominent lecturer and minister Isaac Leeser's translation of the 24 books of the Holy Scripture as well as the distribution and copyright of a long list of works issued by Rabbi Isaac Leeser's Philadelphia publishing house.

As a minister of the Shearlth Israel congregation, Abraham de Sola established a Sunday School (1849), a private Jewish day and boarding school for boys and girls (1854), helped establish the Young Men's Hebrew Benevolent Society (1863), the Yod Beyod, or Jewish Mutual Aid Society (1863) and the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society (1877). As member of the Ancient Jewish Order of Kesher Shel Barzel, de Sola assisted in the establishment of the order's first Canadian lodge in 1872. This was named after de Sola as a tribute to his distinguished career. de Sola has the distinction of being the first British subject to open the United States House of Representatives with prayer on January 9th 1872.

Abraham de Sola's oldest son, Aaron David Meldola (1853-1918), succeeded him as the reverend of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Montreal and another son, Clarence Isaac (1853-1920), was one of the founders of Zionism in Canada and functioned as the president of the Federation of Zionist Societies from 1899-1920. Clarence Isaac was also responsible for the creation of the Jewish National Fund and fundraised for the creation of a Jewish state in Israel.