The Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship

Book Description

The Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship. Cincinnati: The Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1895. Two volumes. Original brown cloth, all edges red. Slight bumping to spine heads, some fading to bottom red edge of volume two, otherwise Near Fine Condition."Seder Tefillat Yisrael", The Union Prayer Book for Jewish Worship became the standard Reform prayer book following Isaac Mayer Wise’s production of Minhag America, first published in 1856. Part 1 contains prayers for the Sabbath, the three festivals, and the weekdays; part 2 contains prayers for New-Year's Day and the Day of Atonement. This prayer-book has more Hebrew than other American Reform prayer-books. The prayer for mourners occupies a prominent place, as do the silent devotions. By 1905, ten years after its publication, "The Union Prayer-Book" had been adopted by 183 Reform congregations, and 62,224 copies had been issued.Beginning in 1847, at the suggestion of Max Lilienthal, Isaac Mayer Wise and others, a meeting was held to conceive a common prayer book for use by the growing Reform movement. Later that spring Wise submitted the manuscript of a prayer book, to be entitled "Minhag America", which was to be used by all the congregations of the country. And indeed, after the Cleveland Conference of 1855, it was adopted by most of the congregations of the Western and Southern States. So pronounced was Wise’s desire for union that in 1894, when the Union Prayer Book was published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, he voluntarily retired the "Minhag America" from his own congregation.

Not sure what some of these terms mean? Look it up in our glossary.