Rock of Ages” (a/k/a, “Hanukkah-Hymn”) was written by the prominent Reform movement rabbi Gustav Gottheil, and composed in English verse to be sung to a popular melody for the piyyut Maoz Tsur. It was first published in The Jewish Chronicle, №1341 (new series), 21 December 1894, p. 18. The work cannot be regarded as a translation, or even a free translation or paraphrasic translation, but rather as a song inspired by the initial lines of the first and last stanzas of Maoz Tsur. Three of the five stanzas were published as “Hanukkah-Hymn” in The Union Prayerbook (1895), p. 46.

Before HaTikvah was chosen, Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik’s “People’s Blessing” (בִּרְכַּת עָם, also known by its incipit תֶחֱזַֽקְנָה Teḥezaqnah) was once considered for the State of Israel’s national anthem. Bialik was 21 years old when he composed the work in 1894. It later was chosen as the anthem of the Labor Zionist movement. We hereby present the first ever complete English translation of this poem.

The poem “Gamodei Layil” (Gnomes of the Night) by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik, ca. 1894.

Alice Lucas’s Songs of Zion by Hebrew Singers of Mediæval Times (1894) is a collection of twenty-five adapted English translations, mainly of piyyutim, all intended “for devotion,” i.e., prayer. The collection was expanded upon in a follow-up publication of Lucas, The Jewish Year (1898).

The first edition of the Union Prayer Book (part two), a maḥzor for Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur.

A poem on interfaith tolerance during the Jewish Women’s Congress held at Chicago, September 4-7, 1893, part of the World Parliament of Religion at the World’s Columbian Exposition.

The opening prayer of the Jewish Women’s Congress held at the World Parliament of Religion at the World’s Columbian Exposition as published in the Papers of the Jewish Women’s Congress: held at Chicago, September 4-7, 1893 (1894), p. 8.

A prayerbook compiled for Beth Ahaḇa, a Reform movement congregation in Richmond, Virginia.

A prayer for the end of a cholera epidemic written by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster in 1892.

“The Tabernacle” by Rosa Emma Collins née Salaman was published in The Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial Star vol. 56, p. 688.

The sephardic folk-song “Kuando el rey Nimrod” in Ladino with English translation.

Before the Koren-Sacks Siddur (2009), there was the Authorised Daily Prayer Book first published in 1890 and used by Jews throughout the British Empire, while there was a British Empire. It was originally published under the authorization of Great Britain’s first Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler with a Hebrew liturgy based on Isaac Seligman Baer’s Seder Avodat Yisroel (1868). The translation by Rabbi Simeon Singer (1846-1906) was the most extensive English translation of the Siddur ever published, and for this reason most editions are simply referred colloquially as The Singer Siddur. The Standard Prayer Book, published by Bloch in 1915, was an American reprint of The Authorized Daily Prayer Book.

The proclamation and prayer of chief rabbi Yaakov Yosef, on the centennial of President George Washington’s Inauguration

This “Shir Mizmor l’Purim” by Rabbi Sabato Morais (we think) was first published in The Jewish Exponent on 15 March 1889. It was preserved by Rabbi Sabato Morais in his ledger, an archive of newsclippings recording material he contributed to the press, among other announcements.

Morning Prayers was compiled by Rabbi Gustav Gottheil for the morning prayer service of his congregation at Temple Emanu-El, New York, in 1889.

This prayer by Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs was offered at the 25th anniversary of the Independent Order of B’ne B’rith’s Isaiah Lodge №49 of New York on 16 December 1888 and published in The Menorah, vol. 6, no. 1 (January 1889), p. 61. The Isaiah Lodge №49 of New York was founded on 20 December 1863.

A prayer for the well-being, health and recovery of Emperor Frederick Ⅲ by Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler (Temple Beth-El, New York) published in “In Town: Praying for the Emperor,” The Jewish Messenger (4 May 1888), page 2.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 27 April 1888.

“Charity” is a hymn by Felix Adler, first published in The Ethical Record vol. 1, no. 1. (April 1888), sheet music page 4. For an account of this hymn being sung, find The Journal of Industrial Education, “Autumn Festival of the Workingman’s School. Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1889.” vol. 4, no. 9 (May 1890).

“Task of the Ages” is a short hymn by Felix Adler, first published in The Ethical Record vol. 1, no. 1. (April 1888), sheet music pages 2-3.

“The Children’s Song” is a hymn by Felix Adler, first published in The Ethical Record vol. 1, no. 1. (April 1888), sheet music page 5.

This prayer by chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire Nathan Marcus Adler is found in an order of service prepared for the celebration of Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1887.

“A Child’s Prayer on its Birthday” was written by Frederick de Sola Mendes and published in the anthology, The Jewish Home Prayer-Book (1887), page 130.

“A Child’s Prayer on its Parent’s Birthday” was written by Frederick de Sola Mendes and published in the anthology, The Jewish Home Prayer-Book (1887), pages 130-131.

This is a full transcription of the 1919 edition of a Bundist haggadah in Yiddish, first written as a pedagogical and parodic text in 1886.

“God Save the Queen” is an adaptation of “God Save the King,” a work by an unknown author, first circulated in three stanzas during the reign of Britain’s King George Ⅱ, circa 1745. This Hebrew translation was published in a pamphlet circulated by New Road (Whitechapel) Synagogue in 1892 “on the 73rd Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Victoria,” an event attended by then chief rabbi of the British Empire, Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler​.

A prayerbook containing prayers for private and family use in the home, in vernacular English, expanding upon a prayerbook intended for the same purpose but in German by Benjamin Szold and Marcus Jastrow.

A poem on the meaning of the menorah.

A hymn-book containing not only traditional Jewish hymns, but also others of Christian origin (“adapted for Jewish worship”). Upon it was based the Union Hymnal, which was subsequently adopted by Reform congregations in the United States.

This prayer by Rabbi Sabato Morais after the death of President Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) concludes a eulogy published in the The Jewish Record on 14 August 1885, “General Grant: Substance of a Discourse Delivered Last Sabbath by the Rev. S. Morais.” A note in the preface to the article dates the eulogy to the preceding Sabbath, 8 August 1885. The article was preserved in a newspaper clipping found on page 338 of the Sabato Morais Ledger.

This prayer for the well-being of Her Majesty’s military forces in the Sudan, was offered by chief rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler for use by the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire in the context of British involvement in the Mahdist War, and specifically after news reached Britain of the Battle of Abu Klea in January 1885.

Arranged and translated by Yosef Naḥmuli, סדר תפלות֑֭דפשמ֖ Καθημεριναι Προσευχαι (“Daily Prayers,” 1885), is a Greek-Hebrew siddur for weekdays and festivals, nusaḥ sefaradi (minhag Corfu). Besides being the first Greek translation of this siddur, this translation offers, we believe, the first rabbinic Jewish translation of texts from the Hebrew Bible in Greek (otherwise only available via the Septuagint).

A prayerbook prepared by Rabbi Edward B.M. Browne according to the Reform movement custom of Temple Gates of Hope (now Prospect Park Synagogue) in 1885.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s prayer for the government as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 30-32.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s paraliturgical Aleinu as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 12-13.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s paraliturgical ḳaddish, a private prayer for mourners as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 11-12.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s paraliturgical ḳaddish, a private prayer for mourners observing the yahrẓeit of their parents as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 11-12.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the weekday amidah as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 with adaptations of the traditional blessings found on pp. 52-54.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit festival amidah for Sukkot as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 with a unique prayer for Sukkot found on pp. 48-49.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit festival amidah for Shemini Atseret as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 with a unique prayer for Shemini Atseret found on pp. 50-52.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit festival amidah for the first day of Pesaḥ as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 and pp. 38-41.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit festival amidah for the seventh day of Pesaḥ as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 and pp. 42-43.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit festival amidah for Shavuot as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 with a unique prayer for Shavuot found on pp. 44-45.

This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit amidah for a Confirmation Day as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 with adaptations of the traditional blessings found on pp. 46-47.

This prayer in admiration of King Umberto Ⅰ of Italy after the passing of a cholera epidemic was preserved on page 246 of the Sobato Morais Scrapbook (a/k/a, the Morais Ledger) in a clipping from the Philadelphia Inquirer on 28 November 1884, “The Church and Its Duty: Rev. S. Morais on the Limits of Politics in the Pulpit.”

This prayer in eulogy for Rabbi George Jacobs is found in conclusion to “In Memoriam. Address Delivered Last Sabbath by Rev. S. Morais” in the Jewish Record, 18 July 1884, a clipping of which was preserved on page 231 of the Sabato Morais Ledger.

Ritual for Jewish Worship (1884) is an early American Reform movement prayerbook in English translation by Rabbi Max Landsberg for his congregation, B’rith Ḳodesh, in Rochester, New York.

This is the poem, “The New Colossus” (1883) by Emma Lazarus. Lazarus famously penned her sonnet in response to the waves of Russian-Jewish refugees seeking refuge in the Unites States of America as a result of murderous Russian pogroms following the assassination of Tsar Alexander Ⅱ in 1881. At a time when she was also translating classical Jewish poetry, her identification and revisioning of the Statue of Liberty as “the Mother of Exiles,” points to the familiar rabbinic Jewish identification of the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence, in its feminine aspect) with the light of the Jewish people in their Diaspora.

A bilingual Hebrew-Romanian prayerbook translated by Dr. Moses Gaster in 1883.

This prayer appears in conclusion to “A Summary of the Centenary History of the Mikve Israel Congregation, by Rev. S. Morais” published in the The Jewish Record on 30 March 1883, a clipping of which is found on page 200in the Sobato Morais Scrapbook (a/k/a, the Morais Ledger).