← Back to Languages & Scripts Index “Ribon kol ha-Olamim” was almost certainly written by Rabbi Max Lilienthal in 1846 soon after he arrived in New York City where he was elected chief rabbi of New York’s “united German-Jewish community.” It was first published in L. Henry Frank’s prayerbook, Tefilot Yisrael: Prayers of Israel with an English translation (1848) without attribution. In 1998, Dr. Jonathan Sarna elucidated its authorship in an article, “A Forgotten 19th Century Prayer for the U.S. Government: Its Meaning, Significance and Surprising Author.” In Hesed Ve-Emet: Studies in Honor of Ernest S. Frerichs, eds. J. Magness and S. Gitin, 431-440. Athens, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1998. . . . This is the anthology of teḥinot in in German compiled by Meir haLevi Letteris, תחנוני בת יהודה (Taḥnunei bat Yehudah) Andachtsbuch für israelitische Frauenzimmer zur öffentlichen und häuslichen Erbauung in allen Berhältnissen des Lebens als Jungfrau, Brant, Gattin und Mutter, originally published in 1846. . . . A prayer of repentance and thanksgiving recited at the Shaare Shalom synagogue in Kingston, Jamaica in response to the massive Guadeloupe earthquake of 1843. . . . “When morning paints the eastern sky,” by Cordelia Moïse Cohen (1809-1869), first published in 1842, appears under the subject “Immortality of the Soul” as Hymn 54 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), p. 57. That page is missing in the one copy of the first edition we know to exist. Thankfully, the hymn appears under the same subject as Hymn 40 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), p. 44. . . . “Fear not, fear not, Jeshurun (Isaiah, Chap. XLIV),” by Penina Moïse, was published in 1842, and appears under the subject of “Divine Providence in Relation to Israel” as Hymn 10 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), pp. 15-16. . . . |