As an open source and free software project, the Open Siddur would not be possible at all were it not for the in-kind contributions of its volunteer developers, transcribers, translators, commentators, artists, designers, and promoters. We look forward to thanking you. Please join our community and contribute to the Open Siddur by transcribing or translating texts, researching, providing art and comments, sharing ideas, or if you have technical skills, helping us build the Open Siddur web application. If you would like to support the Open Siddur Project financially, tax free donations can be made via a donation page sponsored by Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, a 501(3)c non-profit providing the Open Siddur with fiscal sponsorship.
The Open Siddur Project is directed by Aharon Varady (founder) and Efraim Feinstein (lead developer). We would like to thank the following for their work to date on bringing this project to life.
Scanned Image Contributors
Harry Aizenstadt and Lisa Rubins (Family of Rabbi Jacob Freedman, z”l, for the late Rabbi’s papers)
Efraim Feinstein
The Library of Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion
The Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary
Seforim Online
Aharon Varady
Text Transcribers
Efraim Feinstein (aka, the Ḥakham–and Lead Developer)
Eve Feinstein
Shir-Yaakov Feinstein-Feit
Shmuel Gonzales
Marc Kasten
Gershon Marx
Aharon Varady (aka, the Hierophant–and Chief Siddur Wrangler)
Text Contributors
Anonymous
Trisha Arlin (for divrei tefillah on the Havdallah)
Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman, Rabbis for Human Rights
Rachel Barenblat (for a kavanah on the Prayer for Dew)
Rabbi Daniel Brenner (for a Kaddish)
Shmuel Gonzales (transcriptions of the Nusah Ha-Ari)
Chajm Guski
John Bruno Hare, z”l, of the Internet Sacred Texts Archive (transcribing the Singer Siddur, and partially completing the JPS 1917 transcription)
Mark X. Jacobs (for a kavanah on the kiddush for Leyl Shabbat)
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer and Lisa Exler (a Simhat Bat ceremony)
Christopher Kimball and the J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research (for maintaining the Westminster Leningrad Codex)
Dr. Rabbi Miles Krassen
Dr. Rabbi Dalia Marx
Dr. Aurora Mendelsohn
Rabbis for Human Rights — North America
Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (for translations of liturgy in his Siddur Tehillat HaShem Y’daber Pi)
Rabbi David Seidenberg (for his eco-conscious liturgies)
Virginia Avniel Spatz (for a kavanah on posture in the Amidah)
Rabbi David Silber (for a Simhat Bat ceremony)
Dr. Devora Steinmetz (for transcriptions and translations of midrashim, and for a Simhat Bat ceremony)
Rabbi Ethan Tucker (for translations of halakhic sourcetexts into English)
Gabriel Wasserman (for his partial transcription of Seder Avodat Yisroel)
Rabbi Rallis Wiesenthal (for the Siddur Bnei Ashkenaz)
Contributors to Hebrew WikiSource
Code Monkeys
Russell Allen
Ze’ev Clementson
Ilan Cohen
Azriel Fasten (aka, the Shadkhan)
Efraim Feinstein
Raphael Finkel
David Troidl
Project Researchers
Efraim Feinstein
Jonah Rank
Aharon Varady
Organizational Advisers and Boosters
Ariel Beery and Aharon Horwitz (PresenTense Institute)
Dan Brown (e-Jewish Philanthropy)
Bob Goldfarb (Center for Jewish Culture & Creativity)
Joel Katz (Religion and State in Israel)
Devorah Priess, Ed.D.
Daniel Sieradski and Sarah Chandler (Jewschool, Jew-it-Yourself)
J.T. Waldman (Tagged TaNaKh, Jewish Publication Society Special Projects)
Avi Warshavsky (CET)
Supporting Infrastructure
eXist-db, a native XML database
MediaWiki
Saxon by Saxonica
Subversion, a version control system and project of the Apache Software Foundation
Text Encoding Initiative
WordPress
Licensing & Standards Framework
Creative Commons
Free Software Foundation
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and the Open Document Fellowship
Wikimedia Foundation
Server Hosts
Josh Rosenberg (our wiki’s host and server admin)
VAserv (our VPS provider)
Google Code (our code repository)
Google Groups (our listserve hosts)
Partners
Ben Varadi and Justin Levy (Tulane Center for Intellectual Property Law and Culture, copyright research)
The Internet Sacred Texts Archive (ISTA)
Open Scriptures (technology sharing)
Eileen Levinson (Haggadot, technology sharing)
Usability Testing:
Elana Messer
Inspiration
Jewish Free Loan Societies, aka גמ”חים, inspired by the value of גמילות חסדים (G’millut Hasadim)
William Morris’ Arts & Craft Movement, and specifically Morris’ Kelmscott Press
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age
Project Gutenberg, digitizing the Public Domain
Creative Commons, free culture licensing for sharing cultural work
GNU, free and open source (FOSS) software
Rabbi Jacob Freedman, z”l, and his unpublished Polychrome Historical Prayerbook
Joe Rosenstein’s Siddur Eit Ratzon
Tastebook
In the summer of 2009, the Open Siddur was one of sixteen innovative projects chosen for participation in the PresenTense Institute 2009 Summer Workshop for Jewish social entrepreneurship in Jerusalem. Modest travel grants to attend the workshop were provided by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and the Jewish Publication Society. Aharon Varady was selected as the Rena and Josh Kopelman Chair of Online Community Organizing, an honor presented by the Kopelman Foundation, and the Open Siddur is grateful for their sponsorship of his work at PresenTense. We also deeply appreciate the participation and interest of the PresenTense staff in the public launch of Open Siddur: Ariel Beery, Aharon Horwitz, Brachie Sprung, Shai Davis, and Brian Blumenthal. Their skill building advice, ideas, and ability to connect us with helpful collaborators was extremely useful and made for a productive summer. We would also like to thank the advice and support provided at that time by J.T. Waldman and Avi Warshavsky (Head of Israel’s Center for Educational Technology Department of Humanities).
In January 2010, Aharon Varady presented the Open Siddur Project at Limmud NY. Thank you to the staff and volunteers of Limmud NY for supporting this and other innovative projects.
