Moses Hyamson was born in 1862 in Suwalki, in Russian Poland. He was brought to England in 1864 by his parents. His father, Rabbi Nathan Haimsohn or Nathan Hyamson was a schoolmaster in the 1871 census, living at 15 Wentworth Street. He studied with his father and Dayan Jacob Reinowitz, and at Jews’ College, London.
Rabbi Hyamson served briefly as preacher, secretary and teacher of the recently-established South Hackney Synagogue in 1883, and then as minister of the Swansea Hebrew Congregation, in Wales, from 1884 to 1888, Bristol Hebrew Congregation (1890-1892) and Dalston Synagogue (1892-1902).
In 1899, Moses Hyamson and Asher Feldman were the first two who received Semicha (their Rabbinical diplomas) in England from the Chief Rabbi, Hermann Adler. They were both appointed as Dayanim (judges) to the London Beth Din (rabbinical court) in 1902.
Dayan Hyamson became the senior Dayan, and from 1911 to 1913 he served as acting Chief Rabbi. As a London educated Rabbi and Dayan, with Semicha and several university degrees. he may well have been the obvious candidate for the permanent post of Chief Rabbi, but he was beaten in the contest by Rabbi Hertz. In 1913, he left Britain for the USA, being elected rabbi of Congregation Orach Chaim in New York (1913-1944), continuing to serve that congregation as emeritus rabbi until his death.
The book contains sermons and a few eulogies, but it demonstrates Moses Hyamson’s orthodoxy and eloquence as a preacher in English, as well as how much he was in demand. Here are sermons delivered at the Great Synagogue in Dukes Place, St. John’s Wood Synagogue, Dalston Synagogue, Hampstead Synagogue, the Central Synagogue, as well as Newport (Monmouthshire) and Leeds.
Jewish Miscellanies 