Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation)

Aharon Varady, founding director of the Open Siddur Project, is a copyright researcher and amateur book scanner. He prepares digital images and new digital editions of prayer books and related works in the Public Domain in order to make their constituent parts (prayers, translations, annotations, etc.) publicly accessible for collaborative transcription by project volunteers. (In some cases, he finds existing digital editions prepared by others that require correction and reformatting.) If you appreciate his efforts, please send him a kind note or contribute to his patreon account.

Maurice Farbridge

Maurice Harry Farbridge (1893-1959) from Manchester, Lancashire, was a scholar, professor, and author. He studied at the University of Manchester (M.A., 1916), and was appointed a fellow there and assistant lecturer in oriental studies. He delivered a course of lectures at the Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, in 1924, and was at the same time acting librarian. In 1927, he was appointed the first professor at the University of lowa’s school of religion, where he taught Judaism from 1927 until 1929, when he was succeeded by Moses Jung. Thereafter he returned to England, where he continued his writing. Prof. Farbridge is the author of Studies in Hebrew and Semitic Symbolism (1923) and Judaism and the Modern Mind (1927); Life—a Symbol (1931); and Renewal of Judaism (1932). He edited the Festival Prayer Book for the United Synagogue of America (1927). Farbridge contributed an article on Semitic symbolism to James Hastings’ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (1922). He died in Brighton, Sussex, England.

Jacob Kohn

Jacob Kohn (1881–1968) was an U.S. Conservative rabbi, scholar, and educator. Kohn was born in Newark, New Jersey, and was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary (1907). He earned a doctor of Hebrew letters at the Seminary in 1917. After leading the Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Syracuse, New York (1908), Rabbi Kohn served Ansche Chesed Congregation in Manhattan, New York (1911–31). Located on the West Side, his congregation introduced decorum, mixed seating, and a choir. Many a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary would attend these services as part of their rabbinic experience, contrasting Kohn with Mordecai *Kaplan. Among those, whose career in the rabbinate Kohn guided, was Milton *Steinberg. In 1931 he moved to Los Angeles, which was then growing into a Jewish community of substance, to begin at the ripe age of 50 a long career as rabbi of Sinai Temple. Learned and scholarly, Kohn became associated with the newly founded *University of Judaism (1947), where he was dean of the graduate school and professor of theology until his death. He was president of the Alumni Association of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the precursor of the Rabbinical Assembly. He helped edit the Conservative Movement's Festival Prayer Book and was a member of the commission that prepared its Sabbath and Festival Prayerbook in 1946. Kohn wrote Modern Problems of Jewish Parents (1932), and later in his career he wrote Moral Life of Man – Its Philosophical Foundations (1956) and Evolution as Revelation (1963). Kohn also contributed many articles to philosophical journals and to periodicals dealing with Jewish life and thought. In addition to his scholarly interests, he was active in the affairs of the Jewish community, serving on the Overseas Committee of the Jewish Welfare Board in leadership positions during World War i, and in the Rabbinical Assembly, the Los Angeles Zionist District, and the Jewish Community Council and its affiliated organizations. He was a leading voice of Conservative Judaism in Los Angeles when the modern day Los Angeles Jewish community was being formed in the prewar and immediate postwar years. (via his entry in the Encyclopedia Judaica)

Louis Ginzberg

Rabbi Louis Ginzberg (Hebrew: לוי גינצבורג‎, Levy Gintzburg) was a Talmudist and leading figure in the Conservative Movement of Judaism of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kaunas, Vilna Governorate (then called Kovno). Ginzberg was born into a religious family whose piety and erudition was well known. The family traced its lineage back to the revered talmudist, halachist, and kabbalist Gaon of Vilna. Ginzberg emulated the Vilna Gaon’s intermingling of ‘academic knowledge’ in Torah studies under the label ‘historical Judaism’. In his book Students, Scholars and Saints, Ginzberg quotes the Vilna Gaon instructing, “Do not regard the views of the Shulchan Aruch as binding if you think that they are not in agreement with those of the Talmud.” Ginzberg first arrived in America in 1899, unsure where he belonged or what he should pursue. Almost immediately, he accepted a position at Hebrew Union College and subsequently wrote articles for the Jewish Encyclopedia. In 1903, he began teaching at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in New York City, where he taught until his death. He died on November 11, 1953, in New York City. (via his article in wikipedia).

United Synagogue of America

The United Synagogue of America was founded in 1913 as the association of Conservative synagogues in North America. It was organized by Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schechter, a Talmudic scholar and spokesman for the Conservative movement. Today, as the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, it serves as a resource to its 650 affiliated congregations across North America, helping them to enrich the Jewish lives of their members and fulfilling religious, educational and communal responsibilities. The organization contains administrative divisions for youth activities, Jewish education, adult studies, music, social action, dietary laws, and congregational standards. It is affiliated with the National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, The Rabbinical Assembly, and the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism.