🆕 הגדה לפסח (אשכנז) | Haggadah for Pesaḥ — nusaḥ Ashkenaz with unique additions from across the Jewish world (edited, translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer, 2025)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)
A Passover seder haggadah containing the traditional form of the text as well as other lesser known forms from across Jewish history and the Jewish world. . . .
סדר מעריב לתשעה באב | Seder Maariv l’Tishah b’Av, compiled by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)
A full prayerbook for the maariv service on Tishah b’Av, compiled by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer from resources shared through the Open Siddur Project. . . .
Qedushta Additions for the Public Repetition of the Amidah on Sigd, adapted from the original liturgical texts by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This is a Hebrew adaptation of the poems traditionally recited by the Beta Israel community for the festival of Sigd, altered and adapted to fit the traditional qedushta form of poetic Amidah additions. The texts of the first few prayers were rewritten substantially and combined with relevant verses so as to fit in the strict form of the magen, mehaye, meshalesh, and El Na. After this, the qiqlar is slightly edited to fit a couplet rhyme scheme, while the silluq (the freest of the genres of qedusha piyyut) is almost entirely preserved — the only change being several verses whose placement is postponed so as to better lead into the qedusha as a silluq should. Regarding translations, the silluq largely uses my original translation with slight alterations (replacing the clunky use of ‘God’ as a pronoun with a gender-neutral THEIR, translating the Agaw passages into Latin rather than English to preserve general comprehensibility while clarifying that this is a different language), while the rest of the poems are different enough for their translation to largely be from scratch. These would be recited with the Ark open for all the piyyutim, as one would on the Yamim Noraim, ideally using melodies from the Sigd liturgy. . . .
📄 סדר מימונה | Seder Mimounah
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A Mimouna packet including havdalah, a Moroccan-rite birkat ha-ilanot, traditional study texts, and yehiretzonot. . . .
הגדה לסדר פסח | The Passover Seder Haggadah, tropified by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A version of the Pesaḥ Haggadah with full cantillation. . . .
💬 סדר לקריאת מגילת העצמאות | The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel (1948), a service for its reading on Yom ha-Atsma’ut
Contributed by: Aharon Zisling, Moshe Sharett, Yehuda Leib Maimon, David ben Gurion, Pinchas Rosen, Zvi Eli Baker, Uri Yadin, Zvi Berenson, Mordechai Beham, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)
Jews have read sacred texts to commemorate miracles of redemption for a long time. Purim has Megilat Esther. Many communities read Megilat Antiochus or Megilat Yehudit for Ḥanukkah. But to many modern Jews, the most miraculous redemption in recent history was the founding of the state of Israel, as we commemorate on Yom ha-Atsma’ut. Like Purim, the story of the founding of Israel was entirely secular on a surface level, with no big showy miracles like a sea splitting or a mountain aflame. Like Ḥanukkah, a Jewish state in the Land of Israel won its independence against mighty forces allied in opposition. But we don’t have a megillah to read for Yom ha-Atsma’ut. Or do we? Just as Megillat Esther is said to be a letter written by Mordekhai to raise awareness of the events of Shushan, so too does the Israeli Scroll of Independence, Megilat ha-Atsma’ut, raise awareness of the events of the founding of the State of Israel. In this vein, I decided to create a cantillation system for Megilat ha-Atsma’ut. Ta’amei miqra were chosen attempting to follow Masoretic grammatical rules – since modern Hebrew has a different grammatical structure, the form is somewhat loose. Because of the thematic similarities to Purim, I chose Esther cantillation for the majority of the text. Just as some tragic lines in Esther are read in Eikhah cantillation, some lines regarding the Shoah or bearing grim portents for the wars to follow are to be sung in Eikhah cantillation. And the final phrases of chapters II and III are to be sung in the melody for the end of a book of the Ḥumash, or the Song of the Sea melody. They can be done in a call-and-response form, with the community reading and the reader repeating. . . .
💬 מְגִילַּת הִיטְלֶיר | Megillat Hitler — a Purim Sheni scroll for French Armistice Day [after World War Ⅱ] by Asher P. Ḥassine (Casablanca, 1943)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A megillah attesting to the terrible events of World War II from the vantage of North African Jewry in Casablanca. . . .
כׇּל נִדְרֵי | Alternative Kol Nidre from Synagogen-Gemeinde Hannover (1937)
Contributed by: Samuel Freund, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This is the Kol Nidrei as offered by the Hannover Synagogue on Yom Kippur in 1937 according to the text provided in a poster, “Agende für Kol-nidre und Seelenfeier in der Synaogen-Gemeinde Hannover” (10 September 1937). Thank you to David Selis for providing digital images of the poster. . . .
תשלומי חצי קדיש לפני שחרית ברכו ליחיד (אשכנז) | Replacement for the Ḥatsi Ḳaddish before the Barkhu of Shaḥarit when Praying Alone or Without a Minyan, from Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
In Jewish liturgy, some passages are dəvarim she-bi-qdusha, passages that require public communal prayer. Most famous among these are the Qaddish, Barkhu, and Qədusha. But people are not always able to pray in a community! In liturgical history both ancient and modern many different tashlumim (replacements) for these texts when praying individually have been suggested. The following is a replacement for the Ḥatsi Ḳaddish before Barkhu that used to be found in many traditional Ashkenazi siddurim. . . .
תשלומי שחרית ברכו ליחיד (אשכנז) | Replacement for the Barkhu of Shaḥarit when Praying Alone or Without a Minyan, from Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
In Jewish liturgy, some passages are dəvarim she-bi-qdusha, passages that require public communal prayer. Most famous among these are the Qaddish, Barkhu, and Qədusha. But people are not always able to pray in a community! In liturgical history both ancient and modern many different tashlumim (replacements) for these texts when praying individually have been suggested. The following is a replacement for the Barkhu of Shaḥarit that used to be found in many traditional Ashkenazi siddurim. . . .
תשלומי שחרית קדושה ליחיד (אשכנז) | Replacement for the Qedushah of Shaḥarit when Praying Alone or Without a Minyan, from Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
In Jewish liturgy, some passages are dəvarim she-bi-qdusha, passages that require public communal prayer. Most famous among these are the Qaddish, Barkhu, and Qədusha. But people are not always able to pray in a community! In liturgical history both ancient and modern many different tashlumim (replacements) for these texts when praying individually have been suggested. The following is a replacement for the Qedushah of Shaḥarit that used to be found in many traditional Ashkenazi siddurim. . . .
תשלומי קדיש שלם שחרית ליחיד (אשכנז) | Replacement for the Ḳaddish Shalem of Shaḥarit when Praying Alone or Without a Minyan, from Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
In Jewish liturgy, some passages are dəvarim she-bi-qdusha, passages that require public communal prayer. Most famous among these are the Qaddish, Barkhu, and Qədusha. But people are not always able to pray in a community! In liturgical history both ancient and modern many different tashlumim (replacements) for these texts when praying individually have been suggested. The following is a replacement for the Qadish Shalem of Shaḥarit that used to be found in many traditional Ashkenazi siddurim. . . .
תשלומי מנחה חצי קדיש ליחיד (אשכנז) | Replacement for the Ḥatsi Ḳaddish of Minḥah when Praying Alone or Without a Minyan, from Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
In Jewish liturgy, some passages are dəvarim she-bi-qdusha, passages that require public communal prayer. Most famous among these are the Qaddish, Barkhu, and Qədusha. But people are not always able to pray in a community! In liturgical history both ancient and modern many different tashlumim (replacements) for these texts when praying individually have been suggested. The following is a replacement for the Ḥatsi Qaddish of Minḥah that used to be found in many traditional Ashkenazi siddurim. . . .
תשלומי מנחה קדושה ליחיד (אשכנז) | Replacement for the Qedushah of Minḥah when Praying Alone or Without a Minyan, from Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
In Jewish liturgy, some passages are dəvarim she-bi-qdusha, passages that require public communal prayer. Most famous among these are the Qaddish, Barkhu, and Qədusha. But people are not always able to pray in a community! In liturgical history both ancient and modern many different tashlumim (replacements) for these texts when praying individually have been suggested. The following is a replacement for the Qedushah of Minḥah that used to be found in many traditional Ashkenazi siddurim. . . .
תשלומי ערבית ברכו ליחיד (אשכנז) | Replacement for the Barkhu of Arvit when Praying Alone or Without a Minyan, from Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
In Jewish liturgy, some passages are dəvarim she-bi-qdusha, passages that require public communal prayer. Most famous among these are the Qaddish, Barkhu, and Qədusha. But people are not always able to pray in a community! In liturgical history both ancient and modern many different tashlumim (replacements) for these texts when praying individually have been suggested. The following is a replacement for the Barkhu of Arvit that used to be found in many traditional Ashkenazi siddurim. . . .
O Day of God, Leopold Stein’s paraliturgical Kol Nidrei “O Tag des Herrn” (1840) adapted in English by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise (1866)
Contributed by: Isaac Mayer Wise, Leopold Stein, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)
One of the most revolutionary alterations made by the early Reform movement in Germany was their replacement of Kol Nidre with a German hymn, sung to the same melody: O Tag des Herrn. But when the early Reformers came to the United States, they adopted a new language, English. In 1866, the American Reform Jewish community was largely bilingual in German and English, and Isaac Mayer (No Relation) Wise’s 1866 service for the Day of Atonement took account for that, including a singable English translation of the singable German replacement for Kol Nidre. I have also included a musical score which uses I. M. Wise’s English text in Louis Lewandowsky’s original setting of O Tag des Herrn. . . .
💬 כִּי בְּהַרְאָיָה הַשֵּׁנִית | The Second Inaugural Address of President Abraham Lincoln on 4 March 1865
Contributed by: Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The second inaugural address of President Abraham Lincoln in English with a cantillized Hebrew translation suitable for chanting. . . .
💬 הַצְהָרַת הָאֵמַנְצִיפַּצְיָה | The Emancipation Proclamation (1 January 1863), translated, vocalized and cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
In honor of Juneteenth, the holiday of American liberation, this is a translation of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation into Biblical Hebrew. . . .
כִּי בוֹ יִשְׁתֶּה צַדִּיק תָּמִים | Ki Vo Yishteh Tsaddiq Tamim, a parody of Yom Zeh Mekhubad by Avraham Menaḥem Mendel Mohr (1855)
Contributed by: Avraham Menaḥem Mendel Mohr, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This is a parody riffing on the piyyut Yom Zeh Mekhubad for Purim by Avraham Menaḥem Mendel Mohr from his Kol Bo l’Purim (1855) transcribed and translated from Hebrew into English by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. . . .
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לַיּוֹלֶדֶת בַּפּוּרִים | Shir ha-Maˤalot for a Woman Giving Birth on Purim, by Avraham Menaḥem Mendel Mohr (1855)
Contributed by: Avraham Menaḥem Mendel Mohr, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This is the Shir haMa’alot for a Woman Giving Birth on Purim (a parody of a birth amulet) by Avraham Menaḥem Mendel Mohr from his Kol Bo l’Purim (1855) transcribed and translated from Aramaic into English by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. . . .