Role Author Name David Sola | Occupation • Rabbi Began 1907 Died 1970 | |
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Spouse Tamar (nee Hirschensohn) de Sola Pool Books Rabbi David de Sola Pool: Selections from Six Decades of Sermons, Addresses, and Writings People also search for Joseph Caro, Ella Friend Mielziner, Azriel Hildesheimer | ||
David de Sola Pool (Hebrew: דוד די סולה פול; 1885–1970) was the leading 20th-century Sephardic rabbi in the United States. A scholar, author, and civic leader, he was a world leader of Judaism.
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Early life and education
Born in London, England, de Sola Pool was descended from an old and renowned family of rabbis and scholars, de Sola, which traces its origins to medieval Spain. His great grandparents were Rabbi (R.) David Aaron de Sola and Rebecca Meldola, his great-great grandfather was Haham Raphael Meldola, a prominent English Rabbi. He was also related to R. Abraham de Sola, R. Henry Pereira Mendes and Dr. Frederick de Sola Mendes.
He studied at the University of London. He held a doctorate in ancient languages, summa cum laude, from the University of Heidelberg.
Career
In 1907, de Sola Pool was invited to become the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel — often called the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue — located in New York City, New York, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He served as its rabbi for sixty-three years.
de Sola Pool translated and edited the Sephardic prayer book for the Union of Sephardic Congregations in 1954, and the Ashkenazic prayer book for the Rabbinical Council of America. These prayerbooks are still in use in congregations around the world.
His book The Kaddish (1909, third printing 1964), based on his dissertation, remains a definitive and well-regarded work on the origins of the Kaddish prayer.
De Sola Pool wrote several important books about Jewish history in Colonial America including Portraits Etched In Stone — Early Jewish Settlers, 1682–1831 (1952) and together with his wife, Tamar de Sola Pool, An Old Faith in the New World — Portrait of Shearith Israel, 1654–1954 (1955). He co-authored with his wife, Tamar de Sola Pool, Is There An Answer: An Inquiry into Some Human Dilemmas (1966). They also co-edited the Parenzo Haggadah for Passover (1951, 1975). De Sola Pool edited the prayerbooks used for the United States Armed Forces. He also wrote a book, Why I am a Jew (1957), part of a series written by leading clerical figures, which remains a supremely well-written introduction to Judaism.
De Sola Pool held honorary degrees of Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Hebrew Letters, Doctor of Humane Letters, and Doctor of Sacred Theology.
Respected and admired across the world, de Sola Pool combined spiritual and pastoral duties with scholarship, and also with public service. De Sola Pool was one of the foremost leaders of American Jewry and a world leader of Sephardic Jewry.
In 2012, the American Sephardi Federation mounted a small exhibition of de Sola Pool's correspondence.
Other Positions
Family
His wife, Tamar de Sola Pool, was the daughter of R. Chaim Hirschensohn. She was a National President of Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America and a prominent leader in her own right.
His son, Ithiel de Sola Pool, was a pioneer in the development of social science and founder of the political-science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His daughter, Naomi de Sola Pool, is a physician. Richard (Dick) Rodstein, his grandson, is a voice-over announcer.