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Israel Zangwill (translation)

Israel Zangwill (1864–1926), born in Whitechapel, London, was a British author at the forefront of cultural Zionism during the 19th century, and was a close associate of Theodor Herzl. He later rejected the search for a Jewish homeland in Palestine and became the prime thinker behind the territorial movement

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יִגְדַּל (אשכנז)‏ | Yigdal, by Daniel ben Yehudah (trans. Israel Zangwill, 1904)

Contributed by: Israel Zangwill (translation), Daniel ben Yehudah Dayyan, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

This is the philosophical-creed-as-piyyut, Yigdal, by Daniel ben Judah Dayyan. Yigdal means “Magnify [O Living God]” and is based on the 13 Articles of Faith formulated by Maimonides (1135-1204). Daniel ben Judah spent eight years improving his piyyut, completing Yigdal in 1404. This was not the only metrical presentment of the 13 Articles of Faith; but it has outlived all others, whether in Hebrew or in the vernacular. The English translation here by Israel Zangwill was transcribed from Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler’s מַחֲזוֹר עֲבֹדַת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד: עֲבֹדַת חַג הַכִּפּוּרִים Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim Part II: Morning Service (1904), p. 2.


שִׁיר הַכָּבוֹד (אַנְעִים זְמִירוֹת)‏ | Shir haKavod (An’im Zemirot), attributed to Rabbi Yehudah he-Ḥasid of Regensburg (ca. 12th c.); translation by Israel Zangwill (1904)

Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation), Yehudah ben Shmuel of Regensburg

This is the Shir haKavod (“Hymn of Glory,” also known by its incipit “An’im Zemirot”) attributed to Rabbi Yehudah he-Ḥasid of Regensburg, included at the conclusion of the Shir haYiḥud (first attested in print in Thiengen 1560). This translation by Israel Zangwill, was first published in Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler’s Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim (Evening Service) (1904), pp. 73-74.


אָמְנָם כֵּן | Omnam Kén, by Rabbi Yom Tov of York (rhymed translation by Israel Zangwill, 1903)

Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation), Yom Tov ben Yitsḥaq de Joigny

Israel Zangwill’s translation of Omnam Kén by Rabbi Yom Tov of York (Joigny), was first published albeit incomplete, as “Atonement Hymn” in Blind Children: Poems (1903), pp. 134-135. Introducing the piyyut, Zangwill notes, “The translation of this curiosity of literature preserves, without adding or subtracting a single word, the precise metre, rhyme-scheme, and alphabetical acrostic of the twelfth-century Hebrew original.” A year later, it was published complete, opposite Hebrew verse, in Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler’s Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim (Evening Service) (1904), p. 38.


אֵשֶׁת נְעוּרִים הָאֲהוּבָה | Éshet Neürim ha-Ahuvah, by Rabbeinu Elḥanan of Dampierre (rhymed translation by Israel Zangwill, 1903)

Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation), Yom Tov ben Yitsḥaq de Joigny

This translation of the poem “Éshet Neürim” by Elḥanan ben Yitsḥaq of Dampierre (d. 1184) was made by Israel Zangwill and first published in his collection of poetry, Blind Children: Poems (1903), under the title, “Israel as Bride and as Beggar” on page 118. (An earlier translation in German was made by Leopold Zunz in Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters (1855), p. 249.)


אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adōn Olam (rhyming translation by Israel Zangwill, 1901)

Contributed by: Israel Zangwill (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Adon Olam is a piyyut that became popular in the 15th century and is often attributed to Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1058) and less often to Sherira Gaon (900-1001), or his son, Hai ben Sherira Gaon (939-1038). The variation of the piyyut appearing here is the 10 line version familiar to Ashkenazi congregations. (There are also twelve, fifteen, and sixteen line variants found in Sepharadi siddurim.) The rhyming translation here by Israel Zangwill was transcribed from the Jewish Quarterly Review vol. 13 (January 1901), p. 321.


אוֹתְךָ אֶדְרוֹשׁ | Otekha Edrosh, by Rabbi Shimon ben Yitsḥaq of Mainz (rhymed translation by Israel Zangwill, 1904)

Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation), Shimon bar Yitsḥaq of Mainz

Israel Zangwill’s rhyming translation of “Otekha Edrosh” by Rabbi Shimon ben Yitsḥaq ben Abun of Mainz, was first published in Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler’s Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim (Evening Service) (1904), pp. 41-43.


וְעַתָּה בָנִים שִֽׁירוּ לַמֶּֽלֶךְ | v’Atah Vanim Shiru laMelekh (Come, children, chant the King), an ofan piyyuṭ for Shavuot by Rabbi Shimon ben Yitsḥaq Abun of Mainz (rhyming English translation by Israel Zangwill)

Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation), Shimon bar Yitsḥaq of Mainz

This is Israel’s Zangwill’s versified English translation of the ofan piyyut of Shimon ben Yitsḥaq Abun of Mainz as published in Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler’s Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Ḥag haShavuot (1909), p. 149.


וְיֶאֱתָֽיוּ כֹּל לְעָבְדֶּֽךָ | v-Yèə̀tayu Kōl l’Avdèkha (All the world shall come to serve Thee), an early piyyuṭ with rhymed English translation by Israel Zangwill

Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Zangwill (translation), Unknown

This is the early piyyut, “v-Yeètayu Kol l’Avdèkha,” as paraphrased in rhymed English verse by Israel Zangwill in Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler’s Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim vol. 2 (1904), pp. 154-155.



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