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.
Yosef ibn Abitur (fl. 10th c.) was a Spanish rabbi, scholar, and paytan. He was a student of Moses ben Hanoch. Ibn Abitur's poems, mostly unpublished, number over a thousand. He wrote many Teshuvas, some of which are extant. He also wrote a commentary on the Bible in Hebrew. Abitur was from a very prestigious Spanish family from the city of Mérida. His great great grandfather was a communal and Rabbinic leader. When Moses ben Hanoch's son Hanoch was chosen to succeed his father, Abitur felt compelled to leave Spain and travel to the Yeshivas in Babel. On his way he stopped in Egypt before arriving in Baghdad. According to the medival history Sefer ha-Qabbalah, during his stay in Egypt, Ibn Abitur produced an Arabic translation of the Talmud for the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Llah. He died in Damascus.
Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra (Hebrew: אַבְרָהָם בֶּן מֵאִיר אִבְּן עֶזְרָא ʾAvraham ben Mēʾīr ʾībən ʾĒzrāʾ, often abbreviated as ראב"ע; Arabic: إبراهيم المجيد ابن عزرا Ibrāhim al-Mājid ibn Ezra; also known simply as Ibn Ezra, 1089 / 1092 – 27 January 1164 / 23 January 1167) was one of the most distinguished Jewish biblical commentators and philosophers of the Middle Ages. He was born in Tudela in northern Spain.
Solomon ibn Gabirol (also Solomon ben Judah; Hebrew: שלמה בן יהודה אבן גבירול Shlomo ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol, Arabic: أبو أيوب سليمان بن يحيى بن جبيرول Abu Ayyub Sulayman bin Yahya bin Jabirul, Latin: Avicebron or Avencebrol) was an 11th-century Andalusian poet and Jewish philosopher. He published over a hundred poems, as well as works of biblical exegesis, philosophy, ethics, and satire.
Yitsḥaq ibn Gayat (1038-1089), spiritual leader of Lucena in the kingdom of Granada, wrote more than 400 liturgical poems with many allusions to the science and philosophy of his day. He also wrote commentaries on tractates of the Talmud and a lengthy commentary on Ecclesiastes.
Shimon ibn Lavi (שמעון אבן לביא, 1486–1585) was a Sephardi Ḥakham, kabbalist, physician, astronomer, and poet. He is credited with the founding of religious institutions and the revival of Torah study in Tripoli, Libya, in the mid-sixteenth century, where he served as spiritual leader and dayan (rabbinical court judge) for more than three decades. He authored a commentary on the Zohar titled Ketem Paz and the piyyut, "Bar Yoḥai", a kabbalistic hymn which became widely popular in the Jewish world. Libyan Jews consider him their greatest scholar.
Rabbi Moshe ben Yehudah ibn Makhir was a kabbalist who flourished among the luminaries in 16th century Tsfat. He is best known for the author of the waking prayer "Modeh Ani" and for his work Seder HaYom, printed for the first time in Venice in 1599. He also founded a yeshiva in the village of Ein Zeitoun (near Tsfat).
 David ben Elazar Paquda (also, Pakuda, Baqoda; first half of the 12th century), was a Spanish payyetan (possibly the cousin of Baḥya b. Joseph ibn Paquda). Al-Ḥarizi praises David's verses twice in the third maqāma of his Taḥkemoni: "none as bright and hot as the songs ben Bakoda begot"; "and Rabbi David ben Bakoda – skill is his prelude, praise his coda." Numerous liturgical poems by him have been preserved. According to Zunz, David's authorship is firmly established in the case of 14 poems by the appearance of his full name in acrostics or in superscriptions; more than 20 other poems in various Spanish nusḥaot, which are signed simply "David" are for the most part also to be regarded as his compositions. One of David's peculiarities, which he shares with Yemenite Hebrew poets, is the scriptio plena spelling of his name (דויד). David has been rightly characterized as a conservative liturgical poet. This is shown in his technique: he uses the syllabic meter more than the quantitative one (used only in two bakkashot), and sometimes he does not use any meter; he prefers monorhymed compositions to the strophic ones. He does not employ the novelties of Andalusian-Hebrew liturgical poetry; he prefers old paytanic structures and very simple forms. (via his entry in encyclopedia.com)
Menaḥem ibn Saruq (also known as Menahem ben Jacob ibn Saruq, מנחם בן סרוק, ca.920-ca.970) was a Tortosa born Spanish-Jewish philologist of the tenth century CE. He was a skilled poet and polyglot. Menaḥem produced an early dictionary of the Hebrew language. For a time he was the assistant of the great Jewish statesman Ḥasdai ibn Shaprut, and was involved in both literary and diplomatic matters; his dispute with Dunash ben Labrat, however, led to his downfall.
Shem-Tov ben Isaac Shaprut of Tudela (שם טוב אבן שפרוט, born at Tudela in the middle of the 14th century) was a Spanish Jewish philosopher, physician, and polemicist. While still a young man he was compelled to debate in public, on original sin and redemption, with Cardinal Pedro de Luna, afterward Antipope Benedict XIII. This disputation took place in Pamplona, December 26, 1375, in the presence of bishops and learned theologians (as recorded in his polemical work, "Even Boḥan"). A devastating war which raged in Navarre between the Castilians and the English obliged Ibn Shaprut, with many others, to leave the country. He settled at Tarazona, in Aragon, where he practiced his profession of physician among both Jews and Christians.
Ya'qub Ibn Yusuf is the proprietor of Olam Qatan bookstore in South Jerusalem. A really wonderful story of his personal journey can be found on youtube, here. IfNotNow is a call to action in the Jewish community to stand together for freedom and dignity for all people; to end our support for the Occupation.
Naftali Herz Imber (Hebrew: נפתלי הרץ אימבר; December 27, 1856 – October 8, 1909) was a Jewish Hebrew-language poet, most notable for writing a poem on which "Hatiḳvah", the Israeli national anthem, is based.
The International League of Animal Rights (ILAR; French: Ligue internationale des droits de l'animal) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1977 by Georges Heuse, a member of the Secretariat of the Director General of UNESCO. The organization was refounded in 1990 as the World Organization for the Rights of Animals (WORA; French: Organisation mondiale des droits de l'animal) before it went defunct.
Abraham Mears Isaacks (1765-1815), born in Swansea, Massachusetts was a Jewish-American in New York and Charleston. We know very little more about his life and career. If you can add a detail, please contact us. Andy Izenson is an Associate Attorney with Diana Adams Law & Mediation, and is a passionate advocate for queer and nontraditional families and for trans and gender-nonconforming youth.
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