Aharon N. Varady

Aharon Varady is the founding director of the Open Siddur Project. A community planner (M.C.P, DAAP/University of Cincinnati.) and Jewish educator (M.A.J.Ed., the William Davidson School of Education), his work in open-source Judaism has been written about in the Yiddish Forverts, the Atlantic Magazine, Tablet, and Haaretz. If you find any egregious mistakes in his work, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also transcribes and translates prayers, besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project.)

Artur Carlos de Barros Basto

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.