In our Prayer Book Collection rabbinic compilations from Babylon a thousand years ago sit next to new drafts being trialled with British communities today. Conceived at different times, printed in different places, written in different languages, the texts added or left out in each new edition represent the particular traditions and perspectives of communities, denominations and individuals. Having these prayer books in conversation within the collection allows our readers to trace the development of individual prayers, prayer books and communal life and analyse the changes in outlook and practice happening today in traditional and progressive communities around the world. The collection offers insight into religious life and human hearts in different times and places. In the pages of siddurim, machozrim and haggadot (daily, festival and Passover prayer books) we hear communal and individual voices calling out across the spectrum of joy and pain. What could languish as a dusty historical collection is actively used to enable the creation of innovative and evolving liturgy for contemporary communities.
Highlights from the Prayer Book Collection
Prayer Books in the 21st Century
The JWEB Accessilbe Siddur: Enjoy the Shabbat Service, London 2020
Really Useful Prayers: What to say when you don’t know what to say, Reform Judaism, London 2009
The Lombard Haggadah (facsimile), New York 2019
Teffilat HaAdam An Israeli Reform Siddur, Jerusalem 2020
Siddur Masorti An Egalitarian Sefaradi Siddur, 2016
Siddur Sha’ar Zahav, San Francisco 2009
Sidur Beit Polin, Warsaw 2015
Siddur Kidush vBrachot Home Ceremonies of the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community, London 2021