Lyons, Jacques J. (Jacques Judah), 1813-1877

Jacques Judah Lyons (1813-1877)

Jacques Judah Lyons, hazan, rabbi, and community leader, was born in Surinam, Dutch Guiana on Menahem 25, 5573 (August 25, 1813). His parents, Judah Eleazar and Mary Asser Lyons, had emigrated to Surinam from Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Jacques education was limited to the institutions the Dutch colony could afford; however, he spoke several languages in addition to Dutch, including Hebrew, English, German, and French and possessed a strong understanding of Spanish.

Jacques began his career as a hazan in Surinam in Congregation Nevie Shalom, a synagogue founded by Spanish-Portuguese Jews. In 1836 he left for Philadelphia, his parents' home state, and was hired within a few months by Congregation Beth Shalome of Richmond, Virginia. He served Beth Shalome for two years, winning the high esteem of the congregation. In 1839, following the death of Rev. Isaac B. Mendez Seixas, he was elected Seixas' successor as minister of Congregation Shearith Israel of New York City. He married Grace Nathan, daughter of Seixas Nathan and Sarah Mendes Seixas in 1842. Jacques and Grace were blessed with three children: Julius J., Sarah, and Alfred.

During his thirty-eight years of ministry, he became highly active in Jewish welfare and advocating Orthodox Judaism. He served as superintendent of the Shearith Israel's school, Polonies Talmud Torah; president of its benevolent society, Hebra Hased va-Emet; director of the Sampson Simson Jewish Seminary and Scientific Institute; and one of the founders of Jews Hospital, later renamed The Mount Sinai Hospital.

Jacques possessed a deep interest in Jewish history. In 1854, Jacques and Rabbi Abraham de Sola of Montreal collaborated in writing A Jewish Calendar for Fifty Years, a book that contained a comprehensive Jewish calendar, an essay on the Jewish calendar system, as well as historical information concerning Jewish communities in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies. Prior to 1861, and continuing to the end of his life, Jacques painstakingly gathered sources and information on United States Jewish history in the hopes of publishing his findings. He made copies of some of the documents he found, and also obtained papers from old families, such as Naphtali Phillips, Isaac Phillips, Joshua Phillips, Horatio Gomez, Joseph Nones, the Pesoa, and Judah Families. His family later destroyed a portion of his papers; one cannot but think of the treasures that may have been contained therein.

Jacques died at the age of sixty-three on Elul 4, 5638, shortly before Rosh Hashanah (August 15, 1877). His funeral services were held on August 15, 1877 in Shearith Israel, and were conducted by his successor Rev. Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes, Rev. Dr. Abraham De Sola of Montreal, Rev. Samuel M. Isaacs of Congregations Shaarai Tefilla of New York, and Rev. Sabato Morais of Congregation Mikve Israel of Philadelphia. His niece through marriage, Emma Lazarus, wrote the poem "Rosh Hashanah, 5638" in his memory. He is buried in the congregation's cemetery in Long Island.

References: De Sola Pool, David and Tamar. An Old Faith in the New World: Portrait of Shearith Israel 1654-1954 . New York: Columbia University Press, 1955, 178-182. Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society (PAJHS), vol. 21 (1913), xxiii-xxviii; and vol. 27 (1920), 144-9. Encyclopaedia Judaica . Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1972. vol. 11, 626.