The significance of special acts of worship for understandings of the history of the British churches is increasingly recognized, following the publication of the findings of the Durham State Prayers project.1 But special religious days, services, or prayers to mark important public events, celebrations, or commemorations were not confined to the Christian churches: they were also appointed by leaders of the British Jewish communities. Many of these Jewish special acts of worship were for the same purposes as those ordered for the Church of England, some were for further British events, and others were for specifically Jewish occasions. As for the Church, most of these acts of worship were observed in all the places of worship of the main Jewish communities in Britain and across the Empire and Commonwealth, often using a special form of prayer (or “order of service”) that was composed and distributed for each particular occasion. By definition, these special acts of worship provide a register of matters which the leaders of British Jewy considered to have particular importance for their communities. They indicate the attitudes of these leaders towards the wider British community and its institutions, and towards Jewish communities elsewhere in the world: they are part of the histories of both British religion and international Jewry.2 They also provide evidence for the relations between the main Anglo-Jewish religious congregations – the Spanish and Portuguese or Sephardi, and the German or Ashkenazi – and for the “peculiar” (and disputed) claims of the Ashkenazi chief rabbinate.3
These Jewish special acts of worship have attracted little historical attention. Some received brief comment in standard histories of the British Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities,4 and in a compilation of Jewish material relating to the Hanoverian kings.5 Among recent Jewish scholars, the interest has chiefly been in sermons preached at wartime special services,6 and in prayers appointed during the period of the Holocaust.7 Occasional references to Jewish special worship or sermons also occur in broader studies of British religion, particularly where this relates to the monarchy.8 The fullest information so far available is provided by the successive bibliographies of Anglo-Jewry, in their lists of printed forms of prayer.9 However, these lists are incomplete, most obviously because the bibliographies do not cover the period from 1838 to 1936. The lists do not distinguish between forms published for use in individual synagogues, often for local purposes, and those issued for the most important occasions for use in all the synagogues of the main communities, and the dates for their use are not always indicated. Nor do the forms alone provide an adequate record of special acts of worship, because they were not always issued for these occasions; in some cases, instructions were given in private communications to the ministers of synagogues10 or by public notices in newspapers, particularly The Jewish Chronicle (JC).
This article considers the long history of the special acts of worship appointed for wide observance in Anglo-Jewry, from the first clear evidence of these occasions in the early eighteenth century. It begins by examining their general features, and the character of the special forms of prayer. It categorizes these special occasions, identifying three main types of appointment. For reference purposes – and to provide details of occasions mentioned in the following discussion (often by reference to the year alone) – an appendix lists all Jewish special acts of worship that are currently known to have been appointed for general observance. This draws on two kinds of evidence: publication details for forms of prayer (the texts of which deserve study by scholars with political and cultural as well as liturgical interests), and information from newspapers and archives. The caveat – known occasions – should be noted. Some forms of prayer may not have survived, or are not yet deposited in libraries or listed in online catalogues. Newspapers did not report all occasions, and searches in digitized collections may be imperfect. All this applies particularly for the period before the 1830s, but delayed deposit in libraries and deterioration in newspaper reportage create difficulties for recent times too. Even the JC ceased its practice of printing notices from the Office of the Chief Rabbi. This is one reason why the list ends in 1970.
The earliest special acts of worship were conducted in the London synagogues of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, eventually based at Bevis Marks, and the German Jews at Duke’s Place, later the “Great Synagogue”. It is likely that a number were observed by the original Sephardi congregation during the early decades after the Jewish resettlement in England in 1656, but the first printed evidence of these occasions, a form of prayer for Bevis Marks, is for 1701.11 As can be seen from the lists of forms in the Anglo-Jewish bibliographies, during the following centuries special services continued to be organized for individual synagogues, not just for Bevis Marks and Duke’s Place but also for new Sephardi and Ashkenazi congregations, and, after 1840, for separatist Reform and Liberal synagogues. But from at least the 1740s, special acts of worship were appointed for general observance, at first for various synagogues in London and later for the growing number of congregations elsewhere. Joint observances by Sephardi and Ashkenazi synagogues, using the same form of prayer, were sometimes arranged early in the period (for example, in 1757 and 1805), and joint services have occasionally been held in Bevis Marks.12 On the death of the Sephardi religious leader, the haham, in 1879, the Ashkenazi chief rabbi ordered use of the Sephardi memorial prayer. In 1884 and 1894, and perhaps for some further occasions, Sephardi synagogues used the chief rabbi’s form. Joint calls for prayers by the Ashkenazi chief rabbi and the Sephardi haham became frequent from the mid-1950s into the 1960s. But the two communities normally had their own observances and distinct forms of prayer, in accordance with their differences in ritual and liturgy.13
General observances first became common in the larger and more widespread Ashkenazi community. From the 1750s, forms of prayer have survived for use in all their London synagogues. From 1809 they were issued for synagogues in “the kingdom” (or “in England”),14 and from 1830 in the United Kingdom (or in Great Britain). After the first election of a chief rabbi by numerous congregations (five in London, nineteen elsewhere in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland) in 184415 – and as his authority was accepted by Ashkenazi communities in the colonies and India – these synagogues were given the collective name of “United Congregations of the British Empire”. After 1882, this wide reach (revised in the 1950s to the current term “United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth”) was gradually taken for granted and dropped from titles of the forms of prayer. The Sephardi community remained much smaller, established few synagogues outside London, and was less centralized. For occasions when the Ashkenazi issued general forms, there would usually be Sephardi forms particular to Bevis Marks. But for various periods from 1859, Sephardi religious leaders also issued general forms, for the “synagogues of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews”.16 This was especially so under Moses Gaster, the haham from 1887 to 1917, who emphasized his independence from the United Congregations by declaring his authorship of the forms and his self-designation as “chief rabbi” on the title pages.17 The effect, evident in the appendix, is that for numerous occasions two different general forms of prayer were published, one for each of the communities.
Special acts of worship were of two types: short special prayers (sometimes with a specially selected psalm) inserted within the usual services,18 or complete special services conducted in addition to the regular services. This distinction is not always evident from the titles of forms of prayer, but a difference in page lengths is indicative: prayers (Hebrew and English texts together) were typically up to four pages (a little longer if the full text of a psalm was included); longer forms were texts for services. Into the early nineteenth century some forms were published only in Hebrew, and until the middle of the century Sephardi forms continued to use elements of Spanish and Portuguese.19 But increasingly from the mid-eighteenth century and invariably from the 1810s, forms were printed in both Hebrew and English. The provision of printed forms was not essential, as the minister could read from a manuscript, and this, rather than lost copies of forms, may explain why for some early special prayers or services in Bevis Marks and Duke’s Place, the only evidence consists of newspaper reports.20
The original reasons for publishing forms of prayer perhaps included a rabbi’s desire to demonstrate his compositional skills to other learned men. In one known case, a form was advertised for sale.21 Once more congregations were created, distribution of printed forms enabled the same texts of special services or prayers to be used in all the synagogues on the same day and even at the same hour. This helped to sustain a sense of community among dispersed ministers and congregations, and to preserve both uniformity in worship and conformity to the orthodox liturgy. It also helped to maintain or assert the authority of the individual or institution that issued the forms. This was particularly important for the chief rabbinate, although it is rarely mentioned in studies of the subject.22 It is perhaps significant that the Ashkenazi production of general forms of prayer became standard after the threat to orthodox authority posed by the secession of the West London “reform” synagogue from 1840, and after the formal establishment of the chief rabbinate under Nathan Adler, who from 1845 insisted on a high degree of religious centralization.23 His forms of prayer were used or locally reprinted in colonies as far afield as Australia, even if, until the spread of quicker transport and telegraphy from the 1870s, this might be weeks or months after the date of the observance in Britain.24 This centralization was carefully preserved. Special prayers or services were appointed by a printed circular letter sent to the wardens and ministers of synagogues, either accompanied by a copy of the form of prayer or containing instructions on which prayers and psalms were to be used from other sources.25 From 1887, Ashkenazi forms usually appeared with the imprint “Office of the Chief Rabbi”. Israel Brodie, on becoming chief rabbi in 1948, sharply reminded ministers that they should not “make any addition or other change to the accepted ritual without my previous approval”, and that like his predecessors he would be responsible for issuing special prayers, whenever appropriate.26 Another purpose of the printed forms was to supply English translations for members of the congregation who could not understand the Hebrew used during the services. This led to an expectation that every member of the congregation might have copies; in 1871 there were complaints that insufficient numbers of copies were available in the Great Synagogue.27 Joseph Hertz, the chief rabbi from 1913 to 1946, sometimes made a special point of telling ministers that “each worshipper” should have a copy of the prayer or service, giving the details for bulk purchase from the printers.28 In the 1950s, the circular letters to ministers included an order form, with those sent to overseas synagogues provided in airmail format to enable swift ordering.29
However, the chief reason for the publication of forms of prayer was associated with the original purpose of these Jewish appointments of special services and prayers. Historians have observed that from the 1840s aspects of Anglo-Jewish worship, religious organization, and presentation underwent a “process of Anglicization”, the adoption of styles and models derived from the Church of England.30 But imitation of the established Church began much earlier, as part of the characteristic “acculturation” of Jewish communal leaders to English norms. As is clear from comparison with the occasions given in the volumes of the British State Prayers project, Anglo-Jewish special acts of worship began as Jewish versions of the religious fast and thanksgiving days and special prayers appointed by the crown for the three established churches in England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and announced in the official gazette and by newspapers. These were expressly for observance by Christians, with the royal proclamations or Orders in Council containing directions to the clergy of the churches.31 The nonconformist and Roman Catholic churches denied the crown’s authority to issue orders for worship, even if in time they came to organize special services or prayers of their own on the same or similar dates.32 In contrast, Jewish religious leaders treated crown orders as applying as directly to their own communities as to the established churches. No difficulty in acceptance of these Christian orders is recorded. Jewish leaders shared their religious purposes; after all, the practice drew from the same source, the examples in the Hebrew scriptures – the Christian Old Testament – of appeals or thanksgivings for God’s interventions to help the Jewish people. But aside from the religious justifications, observance of these occasions expressed the desire of Jewish communal leaders for integration within British society, through demonstrations of loyalty to the monarchy and state, identification with the nation’s anxieties and celebrations, and association with its public rituals. Just as the crown orders for England contained directions to Anglican bishops to prepare and distribute services or prayers specific to each occasion for use in all their churches, so Jewish religious leaders composed and issued forms of prayer for their synagogues. The issue of printed forms also publicized Jewish participation in the nation’s religious and public life, both in themselves and as convenient information for distribution to newspaper editors: from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, texts of prayers or summaries of services commonly appeared in national and regional newspapers, as well as in the JC, from its establishment in 1841 until more recent times.
Before the 1810s, crown orders appear to have been the sole reason for the appointment of Jewish special acts of worship, certainly those for general observance. This is plain from their purposes and dates, and in some cases from references to royal proclamations or commands in the titles of forms of prayer (1757, 1802, 1803). While it might appear from the available sources that synagogues observed only a few of the many special religious occasions ordered by the crown during this period, the explanation is almost certainly loss of evidence, not lack of observance. The apparently “missing” occasions (notably wartime fasts and peace thanksgivings) were no different in their causes from those occasions which are known to have been observed, both during these years and in succeeding decades. From the 1830s to the 1870s, Ashkenazi forms of prayer exist for nearly every special act of worship ordered by the crown.33 Their titles normally contained phrases taken from these orders, and are in consequence similar to the titles of Church of England forms. For fast and thanksgiving days, Jewish observances were for the same dates as those ordered for the churches, in the middle of the week and in one case (1856) on a Sunday. But for special prayers ordered for inclusion in Sunday church services, the day was switched to the Jewish Sabbath, on Saturday. This often resulted in the Jewish prayers preceding the Christian prayer; for the few cases when they came later, this was evidently because the chief rabbi or haham had received late reports of the crown order. When the crown order was for prayers to be said in churches for successive weeks or a particular period, the same pattern was followed for the synagogues.
After 1870, the use of crown orders declined, and special services or prayers in the Church of England became largely a matter for the archbishops.34 Until 1914 Jewish religious leaders usually ignored these “church” occasions, at least for general observances. There were three sorts of exception, for wars (1882, 1885, 1899) and a peace treaty (1902), and for royal occasions. In 1876 Nathan Adler publicly explained that he had not appointed a thanksgiving for the return of the Prince of Wales from an Indian tour because no crown order had been issued.35 But in 1887 he asked at Buckingham Palace whether Queen Victoria would welcome religious thanksgivings for her jubilee. Her private secretary’s favourable reply was claimed as the “first official notification” for a Jewish religious occasion, and was widely publicized in newspapers as a Jewish initiative in obtaining royal encouragement for thanksgivings by “all religious denominations” within the Empire.36 In 1902, both the chief rabbi and the haham followed the Church of England’s innovation of issuing general services to mark the coronation, establishing a new precedent37 – although for the 1911 coronation, Hermann Adler, the chief rabbi from 1891 to 1911, declined a suggestion by the Archbishop of Canterbury that special prayers recommended for the Church of England might be used in synagogues.38 But from 1914 it became common to follow the Church of England’s lead. This was largely because of the patriotic example of wartime national days of prayers, which were co-ordinated by the leaders of the main British churches, at first with the king’s public approval and from 1918 to 1947 at his “desire”39 – which in either case, as shown in a form of 1915, was interpreted by the chief rabbi and the haham as a royal “command”. In 1940, with assistance from the king’s private secretary, the chief rabbi was added to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s list of religious leaders who received early notice of special acts of worship; this enabled him to publish a newspaper notice at the same time as the church leaders.40 The first inclusion of a chief rabbi with the Anglican archbishops and other church leaders in a published appeal for special prayers was for March 1960.41
Most Jewish acts of special worship were for this first broad type of occasion, those which were also observed in the Church of England, whether by order of the crown or organized by the archbishops, a total of 110 of the 188 general occasions listed in the appendix.42 These were for a wide range of causes – wars, victories, peace treaties, epidemics, civil disturbances – and various events affecting the sovereign: jubilees, escape from attacks, illness (including that of the Prince of Wales in 1871–2), and childbirth (all of Queen Victoria’s and those of Queen Elizabeth in the 1960s).
The second type of occasion consists of a number of further royal events. Until 1901 deaths of sovereigns, and before the 1990s those of other royal persons, were not commemorated in the Church of England by appointment of general religious observances; services were held only when and where local cathedrals and churches arranged their own sermons and prayers.43 But from at least the early nineteenth century, the chief rabbi and the haham appointed general memorial services, for George III, George IV, and William IV, for queen consorts (1818, 1925, 1953), for two prospective heirs to the throne (Princess Charlotte in 1817, the Duke of Clarence in 1892), and for the Prince Consort (1861). These services, exceeding the provisions made by the established Church, emphasized the royalism of Jewish communal leaders. Commemoration services in 1843 for Augustus, Duke of Sussex, were for a royal patron of Jewish causes, including removal of civil and political disabilities. Sephardi synagogues even had a general prayer to mark the investiture of a Prince of Wales, in 1969.
The third broad type of special and general worship was specific to the Jewish communities. These were for a variety of purposes, including momentous anniversaries in Anglo-Jewish history (1956, 1960), an anniversary of a national charity (1954), and the assassination of an American president (1963). Most were concerned with the welfare of Jews in other countries, and indicate how, notwithstanding their acculturation within Britain, Anglo-Jewish leaders retained the concept of “Jewish peoplehood” – the acceptance, in varying and sometimes contested degrees, of a dual identity.44 A group of prayers and services for both Sephardi and Ashkenazi synagogues honoured the work of Sir Moses Montefiore, a Sephardi but commanding wide respect as the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who from 1840 to 1875 conducted a series of missions to aid distressed Jews in Palestine, Europe, and North Africa.45 A succession of special prayers expressed solidarity with persecuted Jews in Tsarist Russia (from 1882 to 1906), and under the Soviet regimes (1953 and during the 1960s). From 1933 a prayer was recited regularly for the persecuted Jews of Nazi Germany, and during 1938 and 1939 new prayers or services were appointed as the persecution increased and spread through Central Europe. After the outbreak of war in 1939, with British military success as the best hope for the Jews of Europe, further prayers in addition to the national days of prayer were issued for the British war effort and its military and civilian casualties. As the Nazi extermination of Jews proceeded from 1942, prayers and services were appointed as memorials for “the victims of mass massacres” and for assistance to “our surviving brethren”. These events were commemorated in special prayers during later years, including (in 1962) as a warning against fascist movements in Britain. The Holocaust also cemented Anglo-Jewish support for the creation of a Jewish “national home” in Palestine. There had already been thanksgivings for the British capture of Jerusalem (1917) and for the creation of the Palestine Mandate (1920, 1922), and prayers during Jewish–Arab troubles in the Mandate (1929, 1939). After the end of the Second World War prayers for the United Nations supported hopes that it would guarantee an independent Jewish state, and during later decades a substantial number of special prayers are evidence of the “remarkable … Anglo-Jewish devotion to the welfare of Israel”.46
After the 1970s, in similar fashion to the churches,47 Jewish practices of special worship became less formal. Special prayers became more frequent, while fewer forms of prayer were published, with circulars to ministers often taking their place. Jewish communities became more decentralized or fragmented, with more groups becoming disinclined to accept the lead of the chief rabbi or haham. As already noted, newspapers now rarely reprinted these circulars. In time, the archives of Jewish institutions may reveal more substantial evidence, but adequate discussion at present can reach only to 1970. What can be reported is that the chief subjects for special worship during the 1950s and 1960s – British royal occasions, the welfare of Israel, and attacks on Jews in other countries – remained prominent during the following decades.
This article is concerned with particular occasions of special worship, as listed in the appendix. However, a number of anniversary services and regular prayers should be noted, not least because special forms of prayer were published for them. These occasions also expressed both the British and the Jewish aspects of Anglo-Jewish identity. From 1873 London synagogues observed “Hospital Sabbath” each June, as the Jewish contribution to appeals for congregational collections organized by the City authorities and churches for the Metropolitan Hospital Sunday Fund.48 From 1923 to 1939 all synagogues recited a special prayer either on Armistice Day, 11 November, or on the preceding Sabbath, which Hertz designated as “Peace Sabbath”. During the Second World War, while observance of Armistice Day was suspended, the synagogues recited memorial prayers on a Sabbath close to 11 November, for both the British war dead and the victims of Nazi persecution. When in 1946, on the advice of church leaders (with representation from the chief rabbi) the government appointed Remembrance Sunday as the national day for commemoration of the dead of both world wars, the chief rabbi published a prayer for the preceding Sabbath.49 From 1948 a prayer was ordered for the Sabbath closest to United Nations Day in October each year; from 1949 synagogues recited a “prayer for the welfare of the state of Israel” on Sabbaths and festival days, and since 1955 they have observed annual “rejoicing and thanksgiving” for Israel’s independence day.50