Fanny Neuda a Dinah Berland
STUNDEN DER ANDACHT – HOURS OF DEVOTION
Fanny Neuda (a wife of the Lostice rabbi Abraham Neuda) is the author of an important book of prayers, written in Lostice in 1854. Her book is titled: “Studen der Andacht” (Hours of Devotion) is quite significant, because it was the first of its kind to be written by a Jewish woman for Jewish women. Soon it became a best seller, published in more than 30 editions. Around 1860 it was also translated into English (Published in New York in 1864, reprinted until 1900). The modern German edition was issued for Jewish women living in the Nazi Germany (Frankfurt, 1936) and reissued after the war during 1950s and 1960s
The new enlarged English edition was recently prepared by Dinah Berland (editor of Getty Publications) and will be published by Schocken Books (New York) in August 2007.
Hours of Devotion was scheduled to be published by the end of September 2007. However, the book's publication date has been moved up to August 28 because Barnes & Noble Bookstores wants to display the book on its tables before the High Holidays. Meanwhile, Dinah Berland already started to give workshops on Jewish women's prayer and helping people write their own personal prayers.
In the fall 2007 Dinah Berland will go on the book promotion tour throughout the United States. Her tour will start in the Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, Illinois. For many years the Congregation uses the Torah, which was in the19th century created for the Lostice synagogue. In 2005 Rabbi Bruce Elder and members of the Congregation Hakafa accepted the invitation of Lostice Mayor and the Foundation for the Respect and Tolerance and visited Czech Republic and the town of Lostice. Rabii Elder served service in the local synagogue. It was the first service in the Lostice synagogue since the beginning of the WWII. Dinah Berland, who was already working on her book, learned about the visit and contacted the Foundation. The first contacts developed into a cooperation and exchange of information about Fanny Neuda and “her” Lostice synagogue. In May 2006 Mrs. Berland came for a working visit to Lostice.
Title page - Stunden der Andacht, 1864 edition
Title page - Hours of Devotion, 2007 edition
FANNY NEUDA’S BOOK OF PRAYERS FOR JEWISH WOMEN
The first reactions:
„Written in the nineteenth century, rediscovered in the twenty-first, timeless in its wisdom and beauty – the first full-length book of Jewish prayers written for women
by a woman“.
“Dinah Berland has been preparing all her life to recreate Fanny Neuda’s deeply useful and soulful Hours of Devotion. She has given us a woman’s book of illuminations, a compilation of prayers that moves from suffering to gratitude, a work that sanctifies
life.”
Edward Hirsch, poet
President, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
“Ms. Berland has given us a treasure for the praying heart. Her English rendering of Fanny Neuda’s book of prayers for Jewish women is elegant as well as capable of opening hearts. It stirred mine.”
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Co-author of Jewish with Feeling
“Dinah Berland’s new edition of the nineteenth-century Hours of Devotion is a rich, spiritually vital collection that shines with integrity, wisdom, and love. Contemporary Jewish life as a whole is immeasurably enriched by Berland’s graceful restoration of Fanny Neuda’s prayers – prayers that had articulated the deep yearnings of Jewish women for generations. This is the kind of book every Jewish woman, and every Jewish home, should have – a book to be truly cherished and transmitted from generation to generation.”
Rabbi Miriyam Glazer, Professor of Literature
American Jewish University
In her moving introduction, Dinah Berland describes her serendipitous discovery of Hours of Devotion in a Los Angeles used-book store. It was a time of painful estrangement from her son, and the prayers she found in the slim volume provided immediate comfort. Eventually, they would also lead her back to Jewish study and to a deeper practice of Judaism.
Originally published in German, this book by the daughter of a Moravian rabbi was reprinted more than two dozen times in German, Yiddish, and English between 1855 and 1918. Working with a translator, Berland has brought the original version in to modern English – including Fanny Neuda’s forward-thinking essay on the education of Jewish women—and has set the prayers into verse. Reading "A Daughter’s Prayer for Her Parents," "On the Approach of Childbirth," " For a Mother Whose Child Is Abroad," and other prayers for both daily and momentous occasions in life, one cannot help but feel connected to the women who have come before.
For Berland, Hours of Devotion served as a guide and a testament to the mystery and power of prayer. Fanny Neuda’s generous spirit and faith in God, present throughout these pages, offer the same hope of guidance to others.
For more information please see: www.dinahberland.com
Copyright ©2007 Dinah Berland
FANNY NEUDA
(1819 – 1894)
Fanny Neuda (née Schmiedl) was born on March 6, 1819, in Ivancice (Moravia) to a rabbinical family. Later she lived with her family in Prostejov. Her father Juda Schmiedl (1776 – 1855) was a rabbi in Prostejov and other places. She married Rabbi Abraham Neuda and lived with him in Lostice. There she wrote her book Studen der Andacht (Hours of devotion.)
Fanny’s husband Rabbi Abraham Neuda (1812 - 1854 Lostice) succeeded his father, Aron Moses Neuda (1761 – 1835) as the rabbi of Lostice. Abraham Neuda was one of the first "progressive" rabbis in Moravia, who supported reformist views and believed in delivering sermons in German (instead of Hebrew). Abraham was elected as the rabbi by the Lostice community, but the chief rabbi of Moravia, Nehemiah Trebitsch interposed a veto, because Abraham “preached in German and acquired too much secular education”. This resulted in lengthy legal proceedings, which attracted an attention of several scholars, including a Viennese preacher Mannheimer. After six years, the dispute was finally terminated in favor of Neuda, when he had passed an examination before a committee consisting of rabbis and a Catholic priest. Rabbi Abraham Neuda died on February 22, 1854, at the age of forty-two.
Fanny Neuda admired and supported her husband’s views. In the foreword to her popular book, Fanny states:
“I would like to build , with my weak hands the monument of loving memory for my rare and unforgettable husband Abraham Neuda, the rabbi in Lostice, Moravia…“
Fanny’s brother dr. Adolf Schmiedl (1821 Prostejov – 1913 Vienna) was a scholar, who served as the rabbi in several Moravian places (including Lostice for a short period) and in Vienna. He supported reformist ideas and practices as well. He was interested in many areas including Jewish and Arabic religious philosophy and was a prolific writer.
Fanny Neuda also wrote stories for children titled "Naomi" (1867) and "Children's Stories from Jewish Family Life" (1876). She died in Meran, (formerly Austria, now Merano, Italy) on April 16, 1894, at the age of 75.
This important person became totally forgotten in Lostice, while her popular book continues to be published in Europe and United States. Members of the foundation Respect and Tolerance were searching for historical information regarding Fanny Neuda. It was for instance found that Fanny was a mother of three sons, who were born in Lostice – Moritz (1842), Julius (1845) and Gottheld (1846). Discovered materials were shared with Mrs. Dinah Berland, who came to a working visit to Lostice in May 2006.
Neuda’s tombstones in the Lostice Jewish Cemetery
Tombstone of Rb. Abraham Neuda (1812-1854)
(Husband of Fanny Neuda
Tombstone of Rb. Aaron Moses Neuda (1761-1835)
(Father-in-law of Fanny Neuda)
Dr. Canter acquired the following books for the RT Library:
- Neuda, F.: Stunden der Andacht, (Hours of devotion). Prague, Breslau (1864, 1903, 1914)
- Neuda, A.: Eine Auswahl Gottesdienstlicher Vorträge, Gehalten in der Synagoge zu Loschitz. Wien 1845. (Husband of F. N.)
- Schmiedl, A.: Sansinnim . Prague 1859. (Brother of Fanny Neuda).
- Mannheimer, I.N.: Gottesdienstliche Vorträge….Wien 1876. (Abraham Neuda’ defender).
Sources and literature:
- Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbiner, K. G. Saur, München 2004 (Teil 1, Die Rabbiner der Emanzipationszeit in den deutschen, böhmischen und grosspolnischen Ländern).
- Bransky, J.: Zide v Boskovicich. Boskovice 1999.
- Fischer, R.: Cesti spisovatele a umelci z okresu mohelnickeho. Olomouc 1930..
- Gold, H (ed).: Die Juden und Judengemeinden Mährens in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Brno 1929.
- Gold, H. (ed).: Gedenkbuch der untergegangenen Judengemeinden Mährens, Tel-Aviv 1973.
- The Jewish Encyclopedia, Funk and Wagnalls, 1905.
- The Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1978.
- The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 (online at www.JewishEncyclopedia.com).
- Neuda, F: Stunden der Andacht: „Ein Gebet- und Erbauungs-Buch für Israels Frauen und
Jungfrauen zur öffentlichen und häuslichen Andacht, sowie für alle Verhältnisse des
weiblichen Lebens“. Prag, Breslau.
- Neuda, A.: Eine Auswahl Gottesdienstlicher Vorträge, Gehalten in der Synagoge zu Loschitz. Vídeň 1845.
- Neuda, F., Berland D.(ed).: Hours of Devotion. New York 2007
- Schmiedl, A.: Sansinnim. Prague 1859.
- Mannheimer, I.N.: Gottesdienstliche Vorträge...in Wien. Vienna 1876.
- Berland, D.: Fanny Neuda. Unpublished.
- Census 1857-1869 (Lostice), (SOA Sumperk, State Archives in Sumperk).
Documents (originals and copies) in RT archives:
- Information from Achab Haidler – Keshet Project:
- Inscription – Rb. Aron Neuda’s gravestone, Lostice Jewish cemetery.
- Inscription – Rb. Abraham Neuda’s gravestone, Lostice Jewish cemetery.
- Inscription – Rb. Juda Schmiedl’s gravestone, Osoblaha Jewish cemetery.
- Inscription – Rb. Moses Hakohen Karpeles, (19th century hand written document).
- Information from Sixtova, O., Polakovic D. - Jewish Museum in Prague.
- Shiviti plaque by Abraham ben Zundl dedicated to Rb. Abraham Neuda, dated 1852, (Collection point Lostice, Jewish Museum in Prague, inv. no 54.517).
For more information please see: Others - Awards and Prizes
News 2007
© 2007 Developed by Jaroslav Brachtl AFirma.cz