The Movement for Reform Judaism

Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet is the Editor of our new Siddur, published this month. Now nearing the end of an 8 year long process, Rabbi Magonet has penned a series of short 'jottings' relating to different aspects of this groundbreaking publication.

Picture shows Rabbi Magonet presenting the first copies of the new siddur to Rabbi Dr. Tony Bayfield, Head of the Movement.

One of the most challenging problems was designing a functional layout. Consider the problem. How to include on the same page or double spread some or all of the following: the Hebrew text, translation, transliteration, commentary, footnotes giving sources, rubrics to indicate choices, options or continuity, subheadings to mark new sections, and cross-references to reflective readings. As a result we decided on a slightly larger format book because it was more economic to produce and also gave us greater flexibility in the page design.     

Amongst early experiments we looked at one, two or three columns per page. The first option left little flexibility, the third looked too messy. (A congregant offered an interesting three column option but it would have meant printing the book ‘landscape’ which is awkward to hold instead of the conventional ‘portrait’ format, and would have raised problems for sections like the study anthology.)
   
But even with two columns, as the draft soon revealed, pages could appear crowded and difficult to navigate, so improving the layout became a primary task. Shifting the commentary to the foot of the page created a greater sense of space, a flexible column width and a variety of other page adjustments, including using colour, successfully addressed these concerns.  
   
No single layout formula would have worked for every page, so each one had to be designed, tested, adjusted and re-set individually. Separate and joint proofreading of Hebrew, English and transliteration was undertaken for every page on up to five occasions by different teams, so it is not surprising that the final pages underwent up to twenty versions before final sign off. Inevitably something will have been missed that only the eagle eye of regular users will spot.

'Forms of Prayer' will be published in May 2008. If you haven't yet ordered your copy, please contact your synagogue office. The siddur is also available to people who are not members of synagogues.  To place your order, please call 0208 349 9484 or click here to buy on-line.