O Day of God, an English translation of Leopold Stein’s paraliturgical Kol Nidrei “O Tag des Herrn!” by Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1904)
Contributed on: 25 Jun 2022 by
❧“O Tag des Herrn!” is a paraliturgical Kol Nidrei by Leopold Stein. Here it is translated from German to English by the Unitarian minister Frederick Lucian Hosmer on behalf of the Reform rabbi Isaac S. Moses. Hosmer’s translation appears in Hymns and Anthems for Jewish Worship (ed. Isaac S. Moses, 1904), hymn №107 pp. 69-71. . . .
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 on: 22 Jul 2022 by
❧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. . . .