Minhag America

Minhag America is a siddur created in 1857 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise that was intended to address conflict between sides supporting and opposing traditionalism in early Reform Judaism in the United States.

[2] In the May 1847 issue of The Occident, Wise described how American Jews had come "from different countries, and, brought with them diverse Minhagim; and this circumstance must always prove a source of confusion and disagreement in the various Synagogues" and that the need to create a new Minhag was to "bring unity among... all the American Synagogues" and to "uphold the Word of the Living God... in the free country of America", without "the desire for innovation, nor the thirst for fame, nor a giddy disposition for reform".

[1] In 1857, he published in Cincinnati a pair of prayer books titled Minhag America, T'fillot B'nai Yeshurun, both with Hebrew text, and one translated into English and the other into German (titled Gebet-Buch fur den offentlichen Gottesdienst und die Privat-Andacht – Prayer Book for Public and Private Worship).

[2] The prayer book retained many portions of the traditional Hebrew language text, while adding concise and accurate translations in English.

[4] Minhag America eliminated calls for a return to Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the reinstitution of sacrifices and the restoration of the priesthood and the Davidic dynasty.