The Story of a WW1 Siddur found in St Anne’s Shul – UPDATED
Remembrance Sunday – a special memory from the North West by Rabbi Danny
|
|
| One Friday a few weeks ago during lockdown when I was broadcasting Kabbalat Shabbat from Shul I noticed a slim volume on the Bimah right next to my Siddur and other items. I picked it up and was truly surprised by what I found. It was a Prayer Book for Jewish Sailors and Soldiers from the 1st world war!
I have no idea how this small siddur got into our shul and onto the Bimah and so I know nothing of the story behind it. But flicking through this incredible siddur was literally going back over 100 years and I thought I must share this with you on the week of Remembrance Sunday.
Below are a small selection of photos of the Siddur with some explanations of mine to give it some context.
Let us pray together for the memories of all the brave soldiers of both world wars and conflicts that sacrificed their lives and so much for us to live in a free society.
May their memory be a blessing for eternity and may they be protected under the wings of the Divine Presence.
Their death and service for King and country was a true sanctification of God’s name.
(any errors I apologise for as time was short in preparing this) |
|
 |
| Front Cover |
|
 |
This is the most fascinating part of my discovery.
The soldier who owned this volume was M. L Lyons. I checked online in the national archive and his first name was Moses. According to the Archive he was a private and there is a medal card associated with his victories over the period 1914-1920.
We can see his regiment – Civil Service Rifles. and his home address was Liverpool. Quite how St Anne’s shul came into possession of this is a mystery. |
|
 |
Contents page. The slim volume is pocket sized so a soldier can take it wherever they are posted and covers Teffilot for the entire year in only 106 pages. The Teffilot are extremely concise. The only section left complete is the three paragraphs of the Shema which are an essential declaration of Jewish Faith and dedication to God and his Torah and Mitzvot. Even the Shemonah Esrei thrice daily prayer is abridged see below.
During Covid when Shul has been opened we have abridged the service (especially over the High Holydays) as safety overrides the recital of the full liturgy. We can only imagine what life must have been like for soldiers in WW1 and how little time they had for prayer. |
|
 |
The Chief Rabbi at the time was Rabbi Joseph Hertz who served in office from 1913 – 1946 through both world wars!
we can see at the bottom that this edition was preceded by 3 prior editions earlier in the war and it gives us a sense of just how many Jewish soldiers were involved in WW1. |
|
 |
| Can you imagine a soldier saying this Teffilah just as prior to whistle ordering them “over the top”. |
|
 |
Here we have the abridged section for the Shemoah Esrei.
Shemonah Esrei said three times daily is the quintessential Teffilah composed by the last prophets during the days of the Great Men of Assembly during the first period of the second Temple.
Shemonah Esrei means 18 as there are 18 blessings in all. In fact today there is an 19th blessing composed by Rabban Gamliel shortly after the destruction of the Second Temple when the spiritual future of the Jewish nation was in grave doubt. Yet it retained its original name meaning eighteen.The structure of the Shemonah Esrei follows the following formula of first praising God then requesting our needs followed by thanks/acknowledgement
1) three blessings of Praise
2) 13 middle blessings of request (covering all categories both private/national physical/emotional/spiritual)
3) three blessings of thanks
The Talmud teaches that when unable to recite the full formula of the Shemona Esrei the middle 13 blessings can be abridged to form one blessing incorporating all 13 themes. This is known as the Havineinu blessing after the first word. This is the Blessing we see in the photo above as clearly soldiers do not have the time for the longer version of the Shemonah Esrei |
|
 |
| An unusual rendition of the national anthem in full and also translated into Hebrew. Perhaps this was to show the government just how loyal its Jewish soldiers were? |
|
 |
| The inclusion of this text (of which this photo is one page of a few) is quite a surprise. The Book of the Maccabees is NOT one of the 24 books of Jewqish Scripture known to us as Tenach (an acronym for Torah Neviim- prophets and Ketuvim-writings)
It was written no doubt by a Jewish author originally in Hebrew but this was lost. The most important version left extant is in the ancient Greek translation of the Torah known as the Septuagint.
It is considered to be part of the canonical scripture by the Catholic church and other denominations but not by Judaism.
The inclusion in a Jewish siddur whilst strange does have sense as the Book describes the Jewish struggle against the Syrian-Greeks at the time of the story of Chanukah in the 2nd century BCE. |
|
 |
| I checked on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Kitchener,_1st_Earl_Kitchener and Lord Kitchener died in 1916 having served as Secretary of State for War from 1914-1916. Hence the title “The Late Lord …”
The message speaks for itself and is really a fascinating insight into how war can corrupt morals and lead to excesses. |
|
|
|
BASIC INFORMATION
Unique reference:
LYO3819
BIRTH
Place of birth:
Liverpool
DEATH
PLACES
ADDRESSES
56 Erksine Street West Derby Liverpool (1901)
4 Broughton Street Manchester (1903)
360 High Street Bangor (1911)
SCHOOLS
Name:
Manchester Jews School
SIBLINGS
PARENTS
Father: Raphael Lyons (male)
Mother: Rachael Lyons (female)
MILITARY RECORD
Military record no.:
534807
Rank at discharge/death:
Acting Lance Corporal
Assignments
Regiment:
London Regiment (Civil Service Rifles)
Battalion/unit:
1/15th Battalion
Posting:
Western Front 20/5/1917-1/1/1918
OTHER OCCUPATIONS
Type of employment:
Income tax expert
1 of 2Medal roll – British War and Victory medals
2 of 2Medal index card
There were two single sisters living in St. Annes who’s family name was Lyons. The records of the Shull should be checked as I know they were members.
Thank you Adrienne – I will definitely look into this
There are without any doubt unseen forces in the universe and whether we like to accept it or not it is a fact no matter what we like to believe or not. I was brought up Jewish and lived i the Jewish community in Liverpool for about fifty five years but for personal and other reasons I left Liverpool and had a complete change of life.
The booklet that was found on the Bimah in shul was in my opinion OBVIOUSLY left for you to read and use in a sermon (or derosha) and to take serious note of.
Although my lifestyle has changed a lot may I still contribute or/and join in with discussions on your site/s? I look forward to having a reply from you when you can
Shalom umervorach Leslie Lewis – (Nee Leslie Levy)
Thank you Leslie for your lovely comments. Indeed in hebrew we call this Hashgacha pratit – individual Divine providence – this belief is at the core of Judaism but was best articulated and promulgated by the founder of the chassidic movement Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1648-1760). He famously stated that even a leaf turning in the wind is by God’s design. Whilst the human mind cannot fathom God’s master plan, we can and supposed to try and interpret what Hashem wants from us in our lives. So for example whilst we cannot know the reason Corona virus came into the world, we can draw lessons from it. EG Just like Corona virus makes no distinctions between people, race, religion, gender, age or ethnicity so too we must learn from this to love all humanity no matter who they might be as all are in the image of God.
This belonged to Maurice Lewis Lyons, married to Ruth, who was American. He died on 28 Nov 1968 aged 71 and is buried in Blackpool.
Thank you for this information !! So appreciated