Rabbi Freedman's Polychrome Historical Prayerbook

[Aharon Varady]

Some of you following this project already know how one of the inspirations behind it was Rabbi Jacob Freedman's Polychrome Historical Haggadah (1974). This Haggadah was really only a stepping stone for a more ambitious project, a Polychrome Historical Prayerbook which Rabbi Freedman began working on in the late 1950s. Rabbi Freedman died in 1986 before his Siddur Bayt Yoseph was realized in print, but I have seen a great deal of correspondence between him and book publishers indicating that his manuscript was in an advanced stage. Certainly, in Rabbi Freedman's own telling, it was ready for publication by the late 1970s (it just needed to be typeset).

One of the tragedies surrounding the project is that Rabbi Freedman's manuscript became lost following his death. I might very well be the first person to undertake a serious search for the manuscript. Speaking to surviving family members and colleagues I was unable to locate it, but I was able to discover the following:

1) Many notes upon which his manuscript was obviously based, as well as correspondence between Rabbi Freedman and other liturgy scholars. (Contributed by Harry Aizenstadt, Rabbi Freedman's brother in law and Lisa Rubins, a relative of Rabbi Freedman.)

2) Multiple copies of the Polychrome Historical Prayerbook proof-of-concept brochure copyright 1969 and again 1971 with marginalia written by scholars reviewing Rabbi Freedman's work.

3) Speaking to Mr. Aizenstadt, I learned that before he passed away Rabbi Freedman was in touch with a Dutch publisher. My best guess is that this would be Brill. So far I've been unable to discover a contact at Brill for exploring the possibility they might have or have had a copy of the lost manuscript. (Suggestions?)


Over shabbes I reviewed Rabbi Freedman's research, notes and correspondence and I think it would be possible to preserve and use some of his handwritten research in the Open Siddur Project, and in that way continue its legacy.

I'm interested in whether anyone else on this list is interested in Rabbi Freedman's work, and would like to help begin transcribing the marginalia from his photocopies of siddurim. These notes could provide invaluable references and footnotes for future siddurim created with the Open Siddur web application.

If you have any questions, please ask them on the opensiddur-talk discussion list ( http://groups.google.com/group/opensiddur-talk ). Alternately, message me privately.

Thanks!


Aharon Varady
Founder, Hierophant
The Open Siddur Project
http://opensiddur.org