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Lyons, Jacques Judah

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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American minister; son of Judah and Mary Lyons; born in Surinam, Dutch Guiana, Aug. 25, 1814; died in New York Aug. 12, 1877. He was educated in Surinam, and was minister of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation there. Neweh Shalom, for five years. He left Surinam in 1837 and went to Richmond, Va., where for two years he was minister of the Congregation Beth Schalom. In 1839 he was elected minister of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation Shearith Israel, New York city, in succession to Isaac Seixas, and served the congregation thirty-eight years, successfully combating every movement to change the form of worship in his congregation.

Lyons was among those who founded The Jews' (now Mount Sinai) Hospital; he was actively concerned in founding the Jewish Board of Delegates and Hebrew Free Schools and was superintendent of the Polonies Talmud Torah School, in connection with his own congregation. For many years he was president of the Hebra Hased ve-Emet and of the Sampson-Simpson Theological Fund. Lyons was an ardent student and collected a library that is now in possession of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1857, in connection with the Rev. Dr. Abraham De Sola of Montreal, he prepared and published a Hebrew calendar covering fifty years, together with an essay on the Jewish calendar system.