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. . . .

“O Tag des Herrn!” is a paraliturgical Kol Nidrei by Leopold Stein. All the translations I’ve found from the 19th or early 20th century were produced for use in choirs and try to emulate the rhymed structure in the Stein’s German. So here is a straight translation I’ve made of the stanzas that avoids that pretense. –Aharon Varady . . .