Mendes, Henry Pereira

Mendes, Henry Pereira (1852–1937) rabbi; born in Birmingham, England. He came to the U.S.A. in 1877 to serve in the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Shearith Israel in New York, where he stayed until 1920. He was involved in local and national politics, arguing for more liberal immigration laws and for less sectarian schools. He was instrumental in organizing many philanthropic and educational institutions, including the first Young Women's Hebrew Association. A founder in 1887 of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, he was an early Zionist and a prolific writer. His brother, Frederic de Sola Mendes (1850–1937), was a scholarly rabbi, who served Congregation Shaaray Tefila in New York from 1874–1920.