Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, 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 translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Gerson Rosenzweig (Yiddish: גרשׁון ראזענצװױג) (1861–1914), born in Białystok, was a Russian-American editor, author, and poet. He is best known for his Hebrew- and Yiddish-language satires, poems, and epigrams. He received his education in Berlin, Kraków, and other cities of the Russian Empire. He conducted a Hebrew school in Suwałki, Russian Poland, before emigrating to the United States in 1888. After settling in New York City, Rosenzweig became joint editor of the Yidishes tageblatt ('Jewish Daily News'), Yidishe gazetten ('Jewish Gazette'), and Idishe velt ('Jewish World'), a position he held until 1905. He edited and published a weekly, Ha-Ivri ('The Hebrew'), from 1891 to 1898, a monthly, Kadimah ('Forward'), from 1898 to 1902, and Ha-Devorah from 1911 to 1912. He also contributed to the leading Hebrew and Yiddish papers of his time. Rosenzweig's "masterpiece" was Massekhet Amerika, published by A. Ginsberg in New York in 1891 and by the Romm publishing house in Vilna in 1894. It was later included in his 1907 book Talmud Yankaʼi ('The Yankee Talmud'). The popular satire, written in the style of a Talmudic tractate, critiques the social conditions in New York's immigrant Jewish community. Portions of the work were printed in translation in The Sun and other New York papers. He published several works of poetry. These include Shirim u-meshalim (New York, 1893), a volume of poetry; Ḥamishah ve-elef mikhtamim mekoriyim (New York, 1903), a collection of 1,005 of his Hebrew epigrams and poems; and Mi-zimrat ha-aretz (1898), Hebrew translations of American national songs.

Thomas a'Becket (March 17, 1808 – January 6, 1890), born in Chatham, Kent, England, was an actor and musician credited with writing the music and the words, in 1843, to "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." Becket travelled to the United States in 1837 and spent much of his life in Philadelphia. During his early years in the United States, he gave music lessons and sang in operas. At one time, he served as the stage manager of the actor Edwin Forrest and for many years was the director of the Walnut Street Theatre, in Philadelphia, where he also had a long acting career.