PREFACE
was a child of its time. Under the initial chairmanship of Rabbi Dr Werner van der Zyl, and subsequently of Rabbi Hugo Gryn, the prayerbook committee together with the two editors, Rabbi Lionel Blue and Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, spoke for the generation that had experienced the horrors of the Second World War as refugee survivors, and a generation born during and immediately after the war. In addition to addressing what were seen as lacks in the previous edition, the volume had to attempt to create a liturgy after the Shoah , the single greatest catastrophe faced by the Jewish people since the destruction of Jerusalem and the beginnings of almost two thousand years of exile from the land, and the miraculous, if ever–threatened, return to the land with the establishment of the State of Israel. For that edition to speak to a new generation, the language had to be made more contemporary, for example replacing the use of Thee and Thou, already archaic in the 1931 edition it was to replace. It became an educational tool providing opportunities to study through responsive readings and a large anthology – it being argued that the Siddur was likely to be the only Jewish book owned by members, so that what it contained was crucial in shaping their Jewish knowledge and identity. In these and other areas it pioneered new approaches to liturgy many of which were taken up by other ‘progressive’prayerbooks around the world. This new edition is similarly attempting to address new situations. Already the issue of the equality of men and women, as reflected in the language of the prayerbook, and in the recognition given to women amongst our spiritual ancestors, was noted in the High Holyday volume of 1985 and comprehensively addressed in the Pilgrim Festival Prayerbook of 1995. Lessons learned from the latter have helped to make ‘inclusive language’a feature of this new edition. Whereas in the past one standard service was seen as sufficient for the broad base of a congregation, today many congregations experiment with different types of minyanim . Moreover our congregations are quite varied in the mix of traditional and contemporary material, let alone musical styles, which they use. For this reason it was felt that greater flexibility was needed within the service structure, allowing for very different forms of worship. We have tried to meet this need by allowing for and encouraging choices within various sections of the service, so as to provide flexibility within the familiar. Today we are conscious of a shrinking and aging Jewish population in the United Kingdom, but also of a younger generation that feels detached from congregational life. So the prayerbook needs to be more accessible and welcoming to a wider range of people, both within and beyond our congregations, some of whose Jewish background is often minimal. <<<
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