Henry Pereira Mendes (Hebrew: חיים פריירה מנדס, 13 April 1852 – 21 October 1937),[1] was an American rabbi who was born in Birmingham, England and died in New York City.

[2] Henry Pereira Mendes was born into an old Spanish & Portuguese rabbinic family that settled in Jamaica West Indies in the early 1700's.

His father Abraham Pereira Mendes was Rabbi in Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica, Birmingham, England, and the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.

Jacques Judah Lyons, the venerable hazan of the congregation, was failing in health, and he passed away on August 13, when Dr. Mendes had been installed for only two and a half months.

It was no easy task for the young preacher from abroad to fill the void created by the death of Mr. Lyons, who was bound to the congregation by almost forty years....But Dr. Mendes loyally continued the traditions....It is impossible to record the untiring affectionate personal service which Dr. Mendes at all times gave to the members of his congregation in joy and in sorrow...an inspiration to the bride and bridegroom under the canopy, and a stay of strength to those stricken by bereavement.

As Jewish music scholar Neil W. Levin explains: "Mendes also composed settings for the hazzan and choir of Shearith Israel, judiciously retaining the stylistic continuity of the Amsterdam Sephardi musical tradition and preserving its unique aura and melodic character, and some of these settings earned a place in the congregation's permanent standard repertoire.

As he declared at a Zionist rally in Atlantic City in 1933, "Besides upbuilding Palestine, we must promote the ... promulgation of Bible ideals, such as the Brotherhood of Man, the End of War....We Jews must be an element making for good citizenship...we must make the name of the Jew respected....Our destiny is to be altruistic, 'to be a blessing'....There should be on Zion a spiritual center to teach the world the three great R's: Reverence, Righteousness, Responsibility."

Following is a partial list of his writings: Rabbi Mendes continued to be active as an author and orator in his later years, and was in good health until suffering a heart attack a week before his death.

He died in his home in Mount Vernon, New York on October 20, 1937[9] and was buried in Beth Olam Cemetery in Cypress Hills, Queens.