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With kavod (honor) to “all whose hearts were stirred to share” (kol asher nasa libam, cf. Exodus 36:2-3), this is a searchable index of all liturgists, translators, transcribers, etc. whose work on Jewish prayer, on prayer books, and on public readings is being shared through the Open Siddur Project. After ten years, the total number of project contributors is nearly 800. A little over half have shared their work either directly with the project with an Open Content license, or indirectly by contributing their work into the Public Domain as a contributor to a government publication. Nearly fifty are institutional copyright stewards (operating or defunct for-profit and non-profit entities). The remaining contributors have had their works transcribed from material that has passed into the Public Domain after their deaths. Some transcribed works shared through the Open Siddur project remain unattributed due to unknown authorship. If you find an uncredited or improperly attributed work, please contact us.
To join this community of contributors, please share your work. Making prayers and related religious works available for creative reuse and republication through Open Content licenses is crucial for keeping Jewish culture cross-pollinating, vital, and relevant under the current climate of denominationally identified silos and proprietary-by-default copyright strictures. Prospective contributors should read our Mission Statement, Terms of Use, and Copyleft Policy. The Open Siddur is a non-prescriptive, non-denominational project and invites participation without prejudice towards ethnic heritage, skin color, nationality, belief or non-belief, sex, gender, sexuality or any other consideration.
Nader Abdallah is a translator living in Jerusalem.
Scholar, poet, and translator Alter Abelson was born in Lithuania on July 17, 1880, and grew up in Manhattan, where he studied John Keats, John Milton, William Shakespeare, and Percy Shelley. In 1903 he received his Master of Hebrew Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary and in 1920 received a law degree from the New Jersey Law School (now Rutgers). Abelson, who served as a rabbi in synagogues in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, also served as a chaplain for the New York Board of Rabbis from 1947 to his retirement in 1960. Abelson authored four poetry collections, Helen and Shulamith (Whittier Books, 1959), Songs of Labor (Paebar Co. Publishers, 1947), Sonnets of Motherhood (1938), and Sambatyon and Other Poems (The Ariel Publications, 1931), and translated work by the Hebrew poets Judah Halevi and Chaim Nachman Bialik. He died in 1964.
David Abernethy practices law in the Philadelphia area and is a member of the Beth Am Israel community in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania.
Ḥayyim Shaul Aboud (1890–1977) was a poet, rabbi, educator and a philanthropist. He authored Shirayi Zimra Ha-Shalem, containing baqashot of the Jewish community of Aleppo (halab or aram tsoba) as well as songs that he wrote himself. Rabbi Aboud was also the ounding director of "Nezer Aharon" school in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Steven Abraham is the Rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska. Rabbi Abraham graduated from the rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary in May of 2011, where he also received a Masters of Arts in Jewish Education. Before attending JTS, the rabbi graduated from the University of Baltimore with a degree in Business Management. While in rabbinical school, Rabbi Abraham served as an intern at Congregation Beth Shalom in Chicago, as well as at Congregation Habonim in New York. For years, he was actively involved with USY, from his time as a participant in high school, to his service as a group leader for numerous summer programs, and in his current position as director of USY on Wheels.
Israel Abrahams, MA (honoris causa) (b. London, November 26, 1858; d. Cambridge, October 6, 1925) was one of the most distinguished Jewish scholars of his generation. He wrote a number of classics on Judaism, most notably, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1896). In 1902, after teaching for several years at Jews' College, Abrahams succeeded Solomon Schechter, who was moving to New York to head the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, as reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic literature at the University of Cambridge. He received the honorary degree Master of Arts (MA) from the University in late May 1902. In 1914, he published A Companion to the Authorised Prayer Book, a helpful commentary on and supplement to the prayer book compiled by Rabbi Simeon Singer.
Dr. Thabet Abu Rass (or Abu Ras; Arabic: الدكتور ثابت ابو راس, Hebrew: ד״ר ת׳אבת אבו-ראס) is a political geographer and lecturer at Sapir College. In his last position, he directed the Negev branch of Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and in this framework dealt with promoting the rights of the Arab-Bedouins in the Negev. In addition, Abu Rass has served as co-chairman of the Hand in Hand Association for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel and has served as Director of the Shatil Branch in the Negev and as the Director of the Abu Basma Project of the New Israel Fund and the Joint Distribution Committee .
Bella Savitzky Abzug (July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998), nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus. She was a leading figure in what came to be known as eco-feminism. In 1970, Abzug's first campaign slogan was, "This woman's place is in the House—the House of Representatives." She was later appointed to co-chair the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year created by President Gerald Ford's executive order, presided over the 1977 National Women's Conference, and led President Jimmy Carter's National Advisory Commission for Women. Abzug was a founder of the Commission for Women’s Equality of the American Jewish Congress. Active in the UN Decade of Women conferences in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980) and Nairobi (1985), Abzug became an esteemed leader of the international women’s movement. In 1975 she challenged the United Nations General Assembly "Zionism is Racism" Resolution 3379 (revoked in 1991 by resolution 46/86). Long active in supporting Israel, especially in Congress and in Israeli-U.S.-Palestine peace efforts, she insisted that Zionism was a liberation movement. In November 1991, WEDO convened the World Women’s Congress for a Healthy Planet. Fifteen hundred women from eighty-three nations met in Miami, Florida, to produce the Women’s Action Agenda for the twenty-first century. This agenda became the focus of UN conferences throughout the preparations for the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 and created an international women’s caucus that transformed the thinking and policies of the UN community. Abzug promoted the program around the world.
Felix Adler (August 13, 1851 – April 24, 1933) was a German-Jewish American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, influential lecturer on euthanasia, religious leader, and social reformer who, in 1876, founded the Ethical Culture movement. Felix Adler was the son of Rabbi Samuel Adler of Temple Emanu-El, the most prominent reform synagogue in New York City.
Michael Adler DSO, SCF (27 July 1868 – 30 September 1944) was an English Orthodox rabbi, an Anglo-Jewish historian and author who was the first Jewish military chaplain to the British Army to serve in time of war, serving with the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front during the First World War from 1915 to 1918. He was responsible for the Magen David being carved on the headstones of Jewish soldiers who died in wartime instead of the traditional Cross.
Rabbi Dr. Nathan Marcus HaKohen Adler (Natan ben Mordechai ha-Kohen; 13 January 1803 – 21 January 1890) was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire from 1845 until his death.
Herbert M. Adler (1876–1940). A lawyer and lay scholar. Completed the translation of the set of maḥzorim begun by Arthur Davis. He was appointed Director of Education in 1922 by the Central Committee for Jewish Education (for the UK and the British Commonwealth), a position in which he served until 1929. He was the nephew of the then Chief Rabbi, Hermann Adler.
Rasheed Agbaria is a Haifa-based writer, translator, and software engineer. His three published works, so far, are הזר ברחוב צהיון (סיפורת), חלום ליל פחד, and שירה לא תזרח השמש, רומן. He is also the author of the "10 Commandments of Rasheed Aqbaria" (on Facebook).
Shmuel Yosef Agnon שמואל יוסף עגנון (also, Shai Agnon or S. Y. Agnon ש"י עגנון) (July 17, 1888 – February 17, 1970) was a Nobel Prize laureate writer and one of the central figures of modern Hebrew fiction. Agnon was born in Polish Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later immigrated to Mandatory Palestine, and died in Jerusalem, Israel. His works deal with the conflict between the traditional Jewish life and language and the modern world. They also attempt to recapture the fading traditions of the Yiddish shtetl. In a wider context, he also contributed to broadening the characteristic conception of the narrator's role in literature. Agnon shared the Nobel Prize with the poet Nelly Sachs in 1966.
Grace Aguilar (2 June 1816 – 16 September 1847) was an English novelist, poet and writer on Jewish history and religion. Although she had been writing since childhood, much of her work was published posthumously. Among those are her best known works, the novels Home Influence and A Mother's Recompense. Aguilar was the eldest child of Sephardic Jewish refugees from Portugal who settled in the London Borough of Hackney. An early illness resulted in her being educated by her parents, especially her mother, who taught her the tenets of Judaism. Later, her father taught the history of Spanish and Portuguese Jews during his own bout with tuberculosis which had led the family to move to the English coast. After surviving the measles at the age of 19, she began to embark on a serious writing career, even though her physical health never completely recovered. Aguilar's debut was an anonymous collection of poems, The Magic Wreath of Hidden Flowers. Three years later she translated Isaac Orobio de Castro's Israel Defended into English at her father's behest. Later her The Spirit of Judaism drew interest and sales in both Britain and the United States after being published in Philadelphia by Isaac Leeser. He added a preface to the work elucidating his differences with her, the first of many clashes her work would have with mainstream Jewish thought. In the 1840s her novels began to attract regular readers, and Aguilar moved back to London with her parents. Despite her success, she and her mother still had to operate a boys' Hebrew school to stay solvent, which she resented for the time and energy it took from her writing. In 1847, she became ill again with a spinal paralysis which she did not let prevent her from visiting her brother in Frankfurt. Her health worsened and she died there that September.
Sarah Aguilar née Dias Fernandes (1786-1854), born in Jamaica was the posthumous editor of the writings of her daughter Grace Aguilar (1816-1847).
Rabbi Ron Aigen, (d.2016) was the first full time rabbi of Congregation Dorshei Emet, Montreal. He was spiritual leader of the community since 1976, and had a passion for promoting creative Jewish pathways for human fulfillment. His most recent interest was in the development of the Wise Heart Project: Jewish Wisdom for Everyday Living. Combining mindfulness meditation practice together with Jewish texts and rituals the Wise Heart Project offered two new programs this year: Parenting as a Spiritual Journey and Wise-Aging. Rabbi Ron was a Fellow of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He had served as President of the Montreal Board of Rabbis; President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association; and Chair of the Montreal Federation’s Commission on Continuity and Culture. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he received his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Harpur College, SUNY Binghamton and his Masters of Arts in Family Therapy and Community Psychology from Temple University. Rabbi Aigen was a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and was awarded a honourary Doctor of Divinity in 2001. Rabbi Ron’s publications included Siddur Hadesh Yameinu/ Renew Our Days: A Book of Jewish Prayer and Meditation, Mahzor Hadesh Yameinu: A Prayer-Cycle for Days of Awe, and Wellsprings of Freedom: The Renew Our Days Hagaddah; Community and the Individual Jew: A Festschrift in Honour of Lavy M. Becker; and chapters in Bar/Bat Mitzvah Education: A Source Book describing the Dorshei Emet Pre-B’nei Mitzvah and Family Education Program which he developed.
Rabbi Sanford Akselrad (1957- ) is the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Tamid in Las Vegas, Nevada, a position he has held since 1988. Rabbi Akselrad moved to Las Vegas for the job and has been a leader in the local Jewish community ever since. He started Project Ezra during the recession to help Jewish community members find jobs, and established the NextGen program to bring young adults in their twenties and thirties back to the temple. For over twenty years Rabbi Akselrad was a member of the board of the Nevada Governor’s Council on Holocaust education, a topic that was the focus of his rabbinical thesis. He was the founding president of the Clark County Board of Rabbis and has served on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, Jewish Family Services, and the Humana Hospital Pastoral Advisory Board. He was also the chair of the Federation’s Community Relations Council (CRC). Rabbi Akselrad is a board member of the Anti-Defamation League Nevada region office and the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada.
Stewart Edward "Stew" Albert (December 4, 1939 – January 30, 2006) was an early member of the Yippies, an anti-Vietnam War political activist, and an important figure in the New Left movement of the 1960s.
Ben-Tsiyon (also Ben-Zion) Alfes (Hebrew: בן-ציון אלפס) (1851-1941) was a rabbi, author, prolific author of Yiddish religious literature, commentator and compiler of prayers in vernacular Yiddish. His most well-known book is Maaseh Alfes (Tales of Alfes). The last work he saw published, written at age 90, was an autobiography titled "The Life Story of the Maase Alfes." Another work, Toledot ve-Zikhronot, also an autobiography, but with a different focus, was published posthumously.
Rabbi David L. Algaze, originally of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the founder and spiritual leader of Ḥavurat Yisrael, Forest Hills, New York. He received his smikhah from Rabbi Joseph Messas, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Israel, and from Rabbi Ezra Basry, head of the Bet-Din of Jerusalem. Rabbi Algaze founded Eli, a city in Samaria, in 1984. In 1989 he founded The Coalition for Israel. He has been Rosh Yeshivah of Ohr Torah Institute and a delegate of the Soviet Union. A graduate of the University of Buenos Aires, he holds a Master of Philosophy degree from Columbia University and a Master of Hebrew Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary. The Rabbi has been a Fellow of the Herbert Lehman Institute of Ethics, a Columbia University President's Fellow, and a Kent Fellow of the Danfourth Foundation. A sepharadi rabbi, his forefathers include the Maharit, Rabbi Yomtov Algaze, who was Rishon Letzion, chief rabbi of the ancient Jewish community of Eretz Yisrael, and Rabbi Shlomo Algaze, the chief rabbi who excommunicated Shabbetai Tzvi.
Rabbi Adina Allen is a spiritual leader, writer and designer of transformative learning opportunities. Integrating a lifetime of experience in the creative arts with her rabbinic training Adina provides a unique and enlivening approach to Judaism. Her original research using painting, text study and reflective writing to generate contemporary midrash was published in the Winter 2013 edition of the CCAR Journal. Adina has taught Jewish text through a wide variety of creative arts modalities at institutions including Hillels, synagogues, and Jewish communal organizations across the country and abroad. As a recipient of the CIRCLE Fellowship Adina designed and facilitated a semester-long curriculum “Art as Inquiry into Interfaith Leadership” that resulted in an exhibition of the art and writing produced by participants. Adina is co-founder of the Movement Minyan, a method that explores Jewish liturgy through embodied practice, and was the 2012 National Havurah Summer Institute Liturgist in Residence. Former Assistant Editor of Tikkun magazine, Adina is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post and her work has been published in Tikkun, The Journal for Inter-Religious Dialogue, and State of Formation, among others. Ordained by Hebrew College in 2014 Adina is an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and spiritual leader of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, a non-traditional congregation that holds services outdoors all year. She began her career as a biology teacher, turned to writing and editing educational materials, then started teaching Hebrew school and became involved in family and adult education before entering rabbinical school. She received a Masters of Arts in Jewish Studies from Hebrew College in Newton, MA, in 1999, and rabbinic ordination from the Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers, NY, in 2005 and became a Board Certified Chaplain through Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains. For ten years, Katy served as a staff chaplain at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and then as a hospice chaplain. She is the co-founder and President pro-tem of the Jewish Climate Action Network (jewishclimate.org) and the facilitator of the One Earth Collaborative (oneearth.today), a project of Open Spirit in Framingham, MA, where she engages with the community as an eco-chaplain. lives in Wayland, MA, with her spouse, Gabi Mezger, who leads the singing at Ma'yan Tikvah. She blogs about Torah and Earth at www.mayantikvah.blogspot.com.
Yaaqov Mosheh Ḥai Altarats (f. 19th century) was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia. He traveled to Jerusalem at age 13. In Jerusalem he learned ritual slaughter (sheḥitah) and remained in Palestine for an indeterminate length of time. He returned home by way of Beirut (where he worked as shoḥet for a few months), Rhodes, Izmir and Salonika. Unable to support himself in Sarajevo he eventually settled in Belgrade, the capital of independent Serbia, where he worked as a teacher and where he published his book Zikhron Yerushalayim (1887). Another work by Altarats, significantly more ambitious in scope, El Trezoro de Yisrael, was a history of the Jewish people published in four volumes in Belgrade in the 1890s. We know little about Yaaqov Mosheh Ḥai Altarats save what he wrote of himself in his work, Zikhron Yerushalayim. (This short bio was derived from the work of Matthias B. Lehmann in his article, "Jewish Nationalism in Ladino: Jacob Moshe Hay Altarats' Zikhron Yerushalayim," Jewish Studies Quarterly, Volume 16 (2009).)
Alexander Altmann (April 16, 1906 – June 6, 1987) was an Orthodox Jewish scholar and rabbi born in Kassa, Austria-Hungary (present-day Košice, Slovakia). He emigrated to England in 1938 and later settled in the United States, working productively for a decade and a half as a professor within the Philosophy Department at Brandeis University. He is best known for his studies of the thought of Moses Mendelssohn, and was indeed the leading Mendelssohn scholar since the time of Mendelssohn himself. He also made important contributions to the study of Jewish mysticism, and for a large part of his career he was the only scholar in the United States working on this subject in a purely academic setting. Among the many Brandeis students whose work he supervised in this area were Elliot Wolfson, Arthur Green, Heidi Ravven, Paul Mendes-Flohr, Lawrence Fine, and Daniel Matt.
Shlomo Moshe Amar (שלמה משה עמר; Arabic: سليمان موسى عمار; born April 1, 1948) is the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel. Amar was born in Casablanca, Morocco, to Eliyahu and Mima (Miriam) Amar. His family immigrated to Israel in 1962 when he was 14. He studied in the Ponovezh Yeshiva.[3] He transferred to a small Yeshiva in the northern town of Shlomi, where at age 19, was appointed the rabbi of the town. At age 20 he also served as the head of kashrut for the city of Nahariyya. Amar studied dayanut in Haifa under Rabbi Yaakov Nissan Rosenthal. Amar was a close associate and student of the spiritual leader of the Shas party and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef. Before his appointment as Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Amar had served as the head of the Petah Tikva Rabbinical Court. He was elected chief rabbi of Tel Aviv in 2002, the first sole Chief Rabbi of the city. He served in the position of Rishon LeZion from 2003 to 2013; his Ashkenazi counterpart during his tenure was Yona Metzger. In 2014 he became the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem.
American Veterans (AMVETS), established 10 December 1944, is a non-partisan, volunteer-led organization formed by World War II veterans of the United States military. It advocates for its members as well as for causes that its members deem helpful to the nation at large. The group holds a Federal charter under Title 36 of the United States Code. It is a 501(c)19 organization.
Yehoyada Amir is a Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew Union College – Jerusalem. His attention is drawn to religious, humanistic approaches to Jewish existence in light of modernity, the memory of the Shoa, and the unique responsibility of Israeli Jews. For ten years (1999-2009) Rabbi Amir served as the director of HUC's Israel Rabbinic Program. Rabbi Amir is an active member of Maram, the Israel Council of Reform Rabbis and served in various periods as a board member of the council. He has a leading role in contemporary theological-religious, social and ethical discourse in Israel's Reform Movement as well as in neighboring circles.
As JTS’s director of community engagement, Rabbi Julia Andelman oversees adult learning programs across North America, digital learning, continuing rabbinic education, millennial engagement, and Prozdor. Since joining JTS in 2013, she has initiated livestreaming of JTS’s public lectures, created a video studio for digital learning programs, developed high-level curricula for congregations and other settings, and increased continuing rabbinic education tenfold.Julia previously served as the rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zedek in Manhattan, the director of adult education and programming at Park Avenue Synagogue, and the director of the iEngage Project at the Hartman Institute of North America. She was ordained by JTS in 2006.
Mollie Andron holds a double Masters in Midrash and Jewish Experiential Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary, and a BA in Religion from Bard College. Mollie spent her childhood growing up between the US and Israel. She has worked in a variety of Jewish educational settings, including most recently as Associate Director Rabbinical Engagement and Education at Hillel International. She has also worked for American Jewish World Service, the Jewish Education Project, The Heschel School, TEVA Learning Alliance, Storahtelling, and Eden Village Camp. When Mollie isn't working she is spending time with humans (big and small), the stories that we tell ourselves, plays and playing, cooking and eating, moving around, sunglasses, singing, reading children books, staring at people on the subway until they have to look, breaking down barriers, crossing thresholds and reading Midrash.
For the time being, this contributing author prefers to remain anonymous.
For the time being, this contributing translator prefers to remain anonymous.
Ḥakham Raphael Antebi Tabbush of Aleppo (d. 1918) was an outstanding composer of pizmonim. He was the son of Hakham Yisshaq Antebi and a rabbi who composed more than 400 pizmonim, and also restored those that had been lost. He rejuvenated the use of pizmonim in the Syrian Jewish communities. All of Hakham Tabbush’s pizmonim were incorporated into a book published in Jerusalem in 1905 by R’ Raphael Haim Cohen. This work was reprinted with further additions in 1921 and was called Shir Ushbaḥa. He is the teacher of Hakham Moshe Ashear, Murad Harari, Afrir Cohen, Eliahou Hamaoui, among others. Towards the end of Hakham Tabbush’s life he moved to Egypt. He passed away in Cairo, Egypt in 3 Kislev, December 1918.
Rabbi Dr. Karl Applbaum (1910-1974), was the founder and associate rabbi of the Avenue M Jewish Center, Brooklyn. In 1945, was on the faculty of Mesifta Talmudical Seminary, Hebrew Parochial High School in Brooklyn, New York, teaching Social Science. He served as a chaplain in the Army until his retirement from the active reserve as a full colonel in 1970. He wrote Laws Governing the Reading of the Torah, Prophets, and Megillos Esther in the Synagogue, published in the Tiqun La-Qor'im he-Ḥadash (Rabbi Asher Scharfstein, 1950).
Martin Applebaum (1954-2016) served as rabbi chaplain of Fort Lewis, Washington and Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He also served as rabbi of B'nai Israel Synagogue, St. Catharines, Ontario and of Congregation Agudath Achim in Little Rock, Arkansas. Unfortunately, we know little else about Rabbi Applebaum to honor him. If you can help us to learn more and expand this short bio, please contact us.
Founded by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Siverstein, Applied Jewish Spirituality is a home for deep, accessible online courses and resources on the texts and practices of Jewish meditation and spirituality. It's mission is to bring life-changing wisdom and practical guidance to anyone seeking them.
Trisha Arlin is a liturgist, teacher, performer and student of prayer in Brooklyn, NY and was a part-time rabbinic student at the Academy of Jewish Religion (AJR), 2012-18. Trisha was the Liturgist-In-Residence during the National Havurah Committee’s 2014 Summer Institute, has served as Scholar or Artist In Residence at many synagogues where she has read, led services and taught her class, Writing Prayer. since the pandemic began, Trisha has been on Zoom teaching prayer writing, sharing her liturgy and doing readings with Ritualwell, Haggadot.com, for synagogues around the country as well as small freelance groups. She is a founding builder of Bayit’s Liturgical Arts project. Trisha received a BA in Theater from Antioch College in 1975 and MFA in Film (Screenwriting) in 1997 from Columbia University. In 2009/2010, Trisha was an Arts Fellow at the Drisha Institute. In 2011, she graduated from the sixth cohort of the Davennen Leadership Training Institute (DLTI). A longtime member of Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of our Lives, a progressive unaffiliated congregation in Brooklyn NY, Trisha’s liturgy has been used at services and ritual occasions and in newsletter there and at venues of many denominations around the world. Her work has been published in her book, Place Yourself: Words of Poetry and Intention (a collection of liturgy and kavannot. Foreword by Rabbi Jill Hammer, Artwork by Mike Cockrill. 2019 Dimus Parrhesia Press); the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion; Seder Tefillot, Forms of Prayer: Prayers for the High Holydays (Movement for Reform Judaism); B’chol Levavecha (CCAR Press); Beside Still Waters: A Journey of Comfort and Renewal (Bayit & Ben Yehuda Press); A Poet’s Siddur (Ain’t Got No Press); Studies in Judaism and Pluralism (Ben Yehuda Press) and can be found online at TrishaArlin.com, at RitualWell, and of course, the Open Siddur Project. You can support her work by buying her book, making a one time donation through PayPal @trishaarlin or monthly support via Patreon.
Margaret Armour (b. Abercorn, West Lothian, Scotland, 10 September 1860; d. Edinburgh, 13 October 1943) was a poet, novelist and translator.
Arnaud Aron (March 11, 1807, in Sulz unterm Walde, Alsace – April 3, 1890), the Grand Rabbi of Strasbourg, began his Talmudic studies at an early age at Hagenau and continued them at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In 1830 he became rabbi of the small community of Hegenheim in Upper Alsace; and of Strasbourg in 1833. As he was under thirty, the age prescribed by law, he required a special dispensation to qualify for the office. In Strasbourg, Aron acquired the reputation of an eloquent and inspiring preacher and a zealous communal worker. He assisted in founding the School of Arts and Trades and took active interest in other useful institutions. In 1855 he convened an assembly of the rabbis of the department of the Lower Rhine for the consideration of religious questions. Aron was the author of the catechism used for confirmation as prescribed by the Consistory of Lower Alsace. In 1866 the French government acknowledged his services by appointing him a Knight of the Legion of Honor. In 1870, while Strasbourg was besieged, it was he, together with the archbishop, who raised the white flag on the cathedral. Subsequently he was decorated by the German emperor.
Ben Aronin (1904-1980), Hebrew translator, US television performer, scriptwriter, poet and author. The Chicago Jewish Historical Society dubbed him "the Chicago Jewish community’s quintessential Renaissance Man...a lawyer, scholar, teacher, writer, summer camp counselor, and for many years director of extension activities at Anshe Emet. He wrote Jewish-themed songs and plays which are still performed today." He appeared as Uncle Ben in the Magic Door series for children; as an author, he began publishing work of genre interest with "The Doubt" for Amazing in May 1932, and who wrote the Raphael Drale sequence of Lost Race tales about the Lost Tribes of Israel, comprising The Lost Tribe: Being the Strange Adventures of Raphael Drale in Search of the Lost Tribes of Israel (1934) and Cavern of Destiny (1943). In 1941, his The Abramiad, a book-length mythological poem on the emergence of the Jewish people, was published by Argus Books.
The Aronin family are Kohanim, descendents of Aaron, brother of Moses and the first Kohen Gadol (high priest). Family legend claims descent from Simon the Just, one of the Great Sages. The symbolism of the crest recalls this history. The Aleph stands for the Aronin name. The shape of the crest represents the mitre (headpiece) of the Kohen Gadol. The three letters—Taf, Ayin and Gimel—stand for Torah, Avodah, Gemilot Chasadim (law, divine service, and good deeds), the three pillars upon which the world rests, according to Simon the Just in Pirke Avot. The three red stones represent these pillars and the large stone, the world. (The stones also recall the breastplate worn by the Kohen Gadol, which had four rows of three stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel.) The Aronin rabbis of Eastern Europe wore a signet ring bearing the Aronin crest, which was used as an official seal by dipping the ring in wax. Ben Aronin used a picture of the crest on his stationery.
Aliza Arzt is a Jewish educator and a member of Havurat Shalom in Somerville MA. She was liturgist in residence at the National Havurah Committee (NHC) in 2016. She is particularly interested in Hebrew and what we can learn from Hebrew words in the Tanakh and in tefilot (prayers). In her other incarnations, she is a home care speech therapist, potter, parent of young adults, and gecko keeper.
Arik Ascherman is an American-born Israeli Reform rabbi, and co-founder and former Executive Director for Rabbis for Human Rights. As a human rights and political activist, he has spearheaded protests to defend Palestinians against Israeli settler violence. He appears in the 2010 documentary Israel vs Israel. In 2009 he was co-recipient (with Alice Shalvi) of the Leibowitz Prize, presented by the Yesh Din human rights organization for public activism. In 2011 he was co-recipient (with Rabbi Ehud Bandel, a co-founder of Rabbis for Human Rights) of the Gandhi Peace Award," for their nonviolent methods of resolving human rights abuses in Israel and the Occupied Territories."
Mashiaḥ Asgari, resident of Herat, was a young singer and scribe in 19th or early 20th century Afghanistan.
Yoni Ashar is a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Colorado-Bolder. His research interests include biological and statistical approaches to understanding well-being and interventions enhancing well-being.
David Asher (born at Dresden Dec. 8, 1818; died in Leipsic Dec. 2, 1890) was a German-Jewish scholar and educator. He received his early education at the Jewish school of his native city, and subsequently entered the gymnasium there, being one of the first Jews admitted to the institution. As his mother was unable to support him, his stay there was short. Asher then learned the trade of carving and gilding, thereby supporting himself as a journeyman artisan during his travels to various cities of Germany and Austria. On the invitation of a wealthy relative he went to London, where he learned English at a private school—subsequently becoming assistant teacher there—and at the same time assiduously studied philosophy, philology, Hebrew, and modern languages. Later, Asher held various offices in the Jewish congregation and was tutor to the children of the chief rabbi of England. Upon his return to Germany he obtained the degree of doctor of philosophy at the Berlin University. Settling in Leipsic, he soon acquired reputation as an English instructor, having among his pupils many persons of high rank. For seven years he held the post of English master at the Commercial School; and for eight years that of examiner of candidates for higher schools at the university. He was also a member of the Academy for Modern Languages, in Berlin, and official interpreter to the Royal Law Courts of Leipsic. A linguist of the first order, he was engaged in literary work of varied character, and diligently contributed to most of the leading German journals, as well as to the English periodicals the "Times," "Athenæum," "Academy," and "Jewish Chronicle." For the last he translated Dr. Döllinger's "Address on the History of the Jews of Europe." Asher distinguished himself as an interpreter of the philosophy of Schopenhauer; and as an ardent champion of his own coreligionists, energetically combating antisemitic attacks. (lightly adapted from his entry in the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia)
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Ha-Levi Ashlag (1885–1954, Hebrew: רַבִּי יְהוּדָה לֵיבּ הַלֵּוִי אַשְׁלַג), also known as the Baal Ha-Sulam (Hebrew: בַּעַל הַסּוּלָם, "Author of the Ladder") in reference to his magnum opus, was an rabbi and kabbalist born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, to a family of scholars connected to the Ḥasidic courts of Porisov and Belz. Rabbi Ashlag lived in erets Yisrael from 1922 until his death in 1954 (except for two years in England). In addition to his Sulam commentary on the Zohar, his other primary work, Talmud Eser Sefirot is regarded as the central textbook for students of Kabbalah. Ashlag systematically interpreted the wisdom of Kabbalah and promoted its wide dissemination. In line with his directives, many contemporary adherents of Ashlag’s teachings strive to spread Kabbalah to the masses. (adapted from his articlewikipedia)
The Assemblea Dei Rabbini D'Italia is an association of Orthodox rabbis in Italy.
The Assembly of Jewish Notables was a convocation of rabbis and Jewish communal leaders from the communities situated in the territories of the French Empire and the Kingdom of Italy convened by a decree of Napoleon Bonaparte, issued in May 1806 to clarify the relations between the Napoleonic state and the Jews. After meeting that summer, the Assembly convened the Grand Sanhedrin in 1807 to discuss and issue decisions on questions put to them by Napoleon. The Assembly and the Grand Sanhedrin officially dissolved in 1808 with the creation of the Consistoire central israélite de France.
Jeffrey Astrachan is rabbi of Temple Beth Israel, York, Pennsylvania.
Rabbi Gershon Avtzon is the founder and Rosh Yeshivah of the Yeshivas Lubavitch Cincinnati.
Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (אלעזר בן משה אזכרי, also Elazar Azkari) (1533–1600) was a Jewish kabbalist, poet and writer, born in Safed to a Sephardic family who had settled in the Land of Israel after the expulsion from Spain. Rabbi Elazar studied Torah under Rabbi Yosef Sagis and Rabbi Jacob Berab, and is counted with the greatest Rabbis and intellectuals of his time: Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, Yosef Karo, Moshe Cordovero, Isaac Luria, Israel Najara, etc. In 1588 Rabbi Elazar founded the "Sukat Shalom" movement who acted to arouse in Jews the devotion to religion. Rabbi Elazar died in 1600 and was buried in Safed. Rabbi Elazar's Book, the Sefer Ḥaredim (ספר חרדים), printed after his death in 1600, is considered as one of the main books of Jewish deontology. The famous piyyut (liturgical poem) Yedid Nefesh (ידיד נפש) was first published by Rabbi Elazar in Sefer Ḥaredim. He also wrote a commentary on Tractate Bezah and Berachot of the Jerusalem Talmud. (via wikipedia)
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