Philip Birnbaum was an author and translator, best known for his translation and annotation of the siddur

Siddur

A siddur is a Jewish prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as it is known today has developed...

 (Jewish Prayer Book), first published in 1949.

Biography

Birnbaum was born in Kielce

Kielce

Kielce ) is a city in central Poland with 204,891 inhabitants . It is also the capital city of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship since 1999, previously in Kielce Voivodeship...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 and emigrated to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1923. He attended Howard College

Samford University

Samford University, founded as Howard College is a private, coeducational, Alabama Baptist Convention-affiliated university located in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, United States. It includes the , Cumberland School of Law, McWhorter School of Pharmacy, Brock School of Business, Ida V....

 and received his Ph.d.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 from Dropsie College. He served for several years as the principal of a Jewish day school

Jewish day school

A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide Jewish children with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full time basis, hence its name of "day school" meaning a school that the students attend for an entire day and not on a part time...

 in Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

, and directed Jewish schools in Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

, and Camden, New Jersey

Camden, New Jersey

The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...

.

His works include translations (with annotation

Annotation

An annotation is a note that is made while reading any form of text. This may be as simple as underlining or highlighting passages.Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument...

 and introductory material) of the Siddur

Siddur

A siddur is a Jewish prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as it is known today has developed...

, the Machzor, the Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 with Haftorot, and the Passover Haggadah. These translations sought to express reverence without appearing archaic

Archaism

In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...

. His Siddur and Machzor were pioneering in that the Hebrew text is of uniform typeface

Typeface

In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....

, "unlike the helter-skelter boldface paragraphing... found in Old World

Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....

 siddurim". His siddur also contains the rarely published Megillat Antiochus

Megillat Antiochus

Megillat Antiochus is a work recounting the story of Hanukkah and the history of the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire....

. Until the recent advent of the Artscroll

ArtScroll

ArtScroll is an imprint of translations, books and commentaries from an Orthodox Jewish perspective published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd., a publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York...

 translations, "the Birnbaum translations" were widely used in Orthodox

Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...

 (and Conservative

Conservative Judaism

Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...

) synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

s, selling over 300,000 copies. These works presented "an accessible American English translation" and were pioneering in addressing American Jews

American Jews

American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...

' "perceived deficiencies in personal and communal prayer".

Birnbaum is also well known for his works of popular Judaism: his excerpted translation of Maimonides

Maimonides

Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...

 Mishne Torah, was one of the first into English; his "Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts" was widely referenced. He also produced a "readable" summary and translation of the Tanach.

On his death, one writer described him as "the most obscure best-selling author". It is noteworthy that an immigrant at age 19 should achieve such status as a translator into English.

Works

• Daily Prayer Book: Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem. Hebrew Publishing Company, 1977. ISBN 0884820548
• High Holyday Prayer Book. Hebrew Publishing Company, 1979. ISBN 0884822400
• Prayer Book for Sabbath and Festivals. Hebrew Publishing Company, 1977. ISBN 0884820548
• The Birnbaum Haggadah. Hebrew Publishing Company, 1976. ISBN 0884829081
• The Concise Jewish Bible. Hebrew Publishing Company, 1977. ISBN 0884824519
• Torah and the Haftarot. Hebrew Publishing Company, 1983. ISBN 0884844560
• Maimonides Mishneh Torah (Yad Hazakah). Hebrew Publishing Company, 1970. ISBN 0884824365
• Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts. Hebrew Publishing Company, 1979. ISBN 0884829308