Frederick de Sola Mendes

Frederick de Sola Mendes (Montego Bay, Jamaica, West Indies, July 8, 1850—1927) was a rabbi, author, and editor.

He was the son of R. Abraham Pereira Mendes. He was educated at Northwich College and at University College School, London, and at the University of London (B.A. 1869). Subsequently he went to Breslau, Germany, where he entered the university and studied rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau. Mendes received the degree of Ph.D. from Jena University in 1871. Returning to England, he was licensed to preach as rabbi by Haham Benjamin Artom, in London, 1873; in the same year he was appointed preacher of the Great St. Helen's Synagogue of that city, but in December removed to New York, where he had accepted a call to the rabbinate of Shaaray Tefillah congregation (now the West End Synagogue); he entered upon his duties there January 1, 1874. Mendes was one of the founders of the American Hebrew. In 1888 he took part in the Field-Ingersoll controversy, writing for the North American Review an article entitled "In Defense of Jehovah."

In 1900 Mendes joined the staff of the Jewish Encyclopedia as revising editor and chief of the translation bureau, which positions he resigned in September 1902. Associated with Dr. Marcus Jastrow and Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, he was one of the revisers of the Jewish Publication Society of America Version of the Bible. He also translated Jewish Family Papers: Letters of a Missionary, by "Gustav Meinhardt" (Dr. William Herzberg). Of his publications the following may be mentioned: Child's First Bible; Outlines of Bible History; Defense not Defiance. He contributed also the article on the "Jews" to Johnson's Encyclopedia. In 1903 he became for a time editor of The Menorah, a monthly magazine.

In conjunction with his brother Henry Pereira Mendes, and others, he was one of the founders of The American Hebrew (1879), to whose columns, as to those of the general press, he was a frequent contributor.

References

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