A Jewish Calendar for Fifty Years... Together with an Introductory Essay on the Jewish Calendar System, Jacques J. Lyons and Abraham De Sola, Montreal:1854

178 pages (7 1/8 x 4 1/4 in.; 180 x 110 mm).Printed primarily in English, limited Hebrew and a single line of Greek. Foxed; title page lightly creased and soiled, outer margin trimmed and with a small tear, minor losses at foot; some staining, a few pencil marks; pp.151-4 trimmed; Modern black buckram; spine with gilt titles.

One of the first Jewish books printed in Canada

In 1854, Judah Lyons (1813-1877) and Abraham de Sola, (1825-1882), rabbis of the Sephardic communities in New York and Montreal, respectively, collaborated in writing A Jewish Calendar for Fifty Years, a book that contained not only a comprehensive Jewish calendar but also incorporated a 35 page learned essay that meticulously explicates the intricacies of the Jewish calendar system. For scholars, this small volume provides a wealth of historical information concerning Jewish communities in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies. The extensive list of communal institutions details each community's synagogues, educational institutions, charitable societies, fraternal orders, and cemeteries, making it a veritable snapshot of Jewish life in North America in the mid-19th century.