The Union Prayer Book , 1942 r

The Union Prayer Book , 1942 r - Jewish Worship

Tom I - 395 s

Tom II - 370 s

IRST EDITION of the “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, 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.