“Prayer for those who are unavoidably prevented from keeping the Sabbath” was written by Lilian Helen Montagu and published in Prayers for Jewish Working Girls (1895), pp. 20-21. . . .

“Saturday night, Feb. 25, 1837” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 208-210. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 124-126. . . .

“Prayer (Father of mercies)” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 219-221. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 132-134. This prayer at the commencement of an as yet unidentified writing project seems to me to be possibly related to her “Hymn of Praise,” a prayer of gratitude at the culmination of a writing project. . . .

“Prayer for a Blessing on Daily Pursuits” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 227-228. . . .

“Hymn of praise” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 184-185. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 102-103. This prayer at the conclusion of an as yet unidentified writing project seems to me to be possibly related to her “Prayer (Father of mercies),” a prayer of gratitude at the commencement of a writing project. . . .

“Gebet einer Handelsfrau (Prayer for a merchant woman)” was first published in Pereẓ (Peter) Beer’s Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion (1815), as teḥinah №40 on p. 129-132 where it was rendered in Judeo-German. The German rendering transcribed above follows that of Henry Frank’s 1839 edition on p. 110-112. . . .

This is a faithful transcription of the prayer of Gele (Gella), daughter of the printer Moshe, as found at the end of Tefillah l’Mosheh (2nd ed., Halle, Germany, 1710), a prayerbook Gele typeset when she was only 11-years-old. This prayerbook is rare owing to the destruction of the press following the incarceration of Gele’s father for publishing a prayerbook containing the prayer “Aleinu,” which had been forbidden by royal decree. The translation provided here was made by Dr. Kathryn Hellerstein as found in A Question of Tradition: Women Poets in Yiddish, 1586-1987 (2014, Stanford University Press), p. 63-4. The layout of Gele’s prayer follows that of Ezra Korman from his anthology of Jewish women’s poetry, Yiddishe Dikhterins, also the source of the page image provided. If you know the location of a copy or digital scan of this siddur, please contact us. . . .