A prayer book for Jewish women Hours of Devotion was published for the first time in the Czech language by the Foundation Respect and Tolerance

In 1854 Fanny Neuda - wife of the rabbi Abraham Neuda - wrote this important book of prayers in our region - in the town Lostice. Her book originally titled: Studen der Andacht (Hours of Devotion) is quite significant, because it was the first of its kind to be written in German by a Jewish woman for Jewish women. Soon it became a best seller, translated to several languages and published in more than 30 editions. In 1866 it was translated into English. (Published several times in New York and Cincinnati between 1866 and 1899). The modern German edition was released for Jewish women living in the Nazi Germany (Frankfurt, 1936) and reissued after the war during 1950s and 1960s in Switzerland.

The new enlarged English edition was recently prepared by Dinah Berland (editor of Getty Publications, Los Angeles) and published by Schocken Books (New York) in August 2007.

A number of the prayers written by Fanny Neuda appeared also in A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book (Tefillat Nashim), which was prepared by dr. Aliza Lavie (Bar-Illan University) and published in Hebrew (Jerusalem: Yedioth Ahronoth, 2005) and in English (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2008).

The first edition of Fanny Neuda’s Hours of Devotion in Czech language was prepared and published by the Foundation Respect and Tolerance

in November 2008.

Title: Hodiny zbožnosti

Translation and commentaries: Jaroslav Achab Haidler

Biographical information: Ludek Stipl

Financial assistance: Czech-German Foundation for the Future,

Town of Lostice, Janet and Stanton Canter Family Trust, Hakafa Congregation.

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Dr. Aliza Lavie is organizing the panel “Fanny Neuda”, which will be part of the Fifteen World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, August 2009)

RespeCt and Tolerance

Radnice 4, 789 85 Mohelnice, Czech Republic