Mendes, Henry Pereira (1852–1937)

English-born US rabbi. He was involved in local and national politics, arguing for more liberal immigration laws and for less sectarian schools. He was instrumental in organizing many philanthropic and educational institutions, including the first Young Women's Hebrew Association. A founder in 1887 of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, he was an early Zionist and a prolific writer.

Mendes was born in Birmingham, England. He emigrated to the USA in 1877 to serve in the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Shearith Israel in New York City, where he stayed until 1920. His brother, Frederic de Sola Mendes (1850–1937), was a scholarly rabbi, who served Congregation Shaaray Tefila in New York City from 1874–1920.