Artur Carlos de Barros Basto (אברהם ישראל בן־ראש; Abraham Israel Ben-Rosh; 18 December 1887 – 8 March 1961) was a Portuguese military officer and writer, who published dozens of works contributing to Jewish life and Judaism in Portugal. A pioneering Jewish leader, he helped to re-establish the Jewish Community in Porto and assisted in the construction of the Kadoorie Synagogue, the largest Synagogue in the Iberian Peninsula. During World War Ⅱ, Barros Basto helped Jewish refugees escape the Holocaust. A descendant of Portuguese crypto-Jews, he converted to Judaism in 1920 and sought to help other crypto-Jews return to rabbinic Judaism. Opposition among some families of Marranos led to personal attacks on his character which damaged his name and military career.

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.