Page:Annotated Edition of the Authorised Daily Prayer Book.djvu/21



The &quot;Authorised Daily Prayer Book&quot; is the form now generally followed in the Jewish congregations of the British Empire. Edited with a new English translation by the late Rev. Simeon Singer, it appeared in 1890 with the sanction of Chief Rabbi Dr Nathan Marcus Adler. This Prayer Book belongs to the &quot;German&quot; rite with certain characteristics which are described as &quot;Polish.&quot; It corresponds on the whole to the forms in use throughout North, West and Central Europe, and is also parallel to the version employed by many Jews in America and in Palestine. Southern Europe and the Orient in general follow different usages,—their main rite being the &quot;Spanish&quot; or Sephardic—and the same &quot;Spanish&quot; rite is used in a number of congregations in the countries where, on the whole, the rite prevails that is represented in the Prayer Book before us.

At an early period, before the Expulsion under Edward I. in 1290, the English Jews, owing to their close connection with France, spoke French and followed the French rite in public worship. But since the Return of the Jews to England in the middle of the seventeenth century there have been two rites in use: the Sephardic or &quot;Spanish&quot; rite (which still flourishes in three London and one Provincial &quot;orthodox&quot; synagogues, and in a modified form in two or three &quot;Reformed&quot;