When I was a kid the Shiloh Siddur was king, that blue large printed siddur was all I used. I remember how the siddurs cover would become tattred and then the little threads would all start coming loose until you had to tear them off because it was too addicting. The Shiloh Siddur came in one color and one style, yet its popularity was because you knew exactly where to go when you busted it out. The older ones were rare, you know, the ones with the pink covers from 1930 or something. They were usually tucked away in the far reaches of the book shelf next to those yellow covered Tikun Mayer siddurs that were printed in 1935. The Shiloh Siddur was and still is like the McDonalds of Siddurs- you know exactly what you are getting, no surprises.
When I was graduated 8th grade my school gave me one of those compact beige Artscroll siddurs, the hard to read small lettering and bulky feel of it was nothing to compare to the very ergonomically shaped Shiloh siddur, yet everywhere I went people used Artscrolls- which led me to believe that Artscroll had a monopoly on the siddur market and was exploiting it for all it was worth, by forcing folks to use extra bulky siddurs with poor translations and without the old school print of the Torah.
Then all of the sudden there were multiple Artscroll siddurs that were all exactly the same except for their packaging. I felt as if Artscroll were pulling the Beatles and Aerowsmith moves of repackaging their famous works and greatest hit multiple times just so they could keep coming out with albums long after the band members were dead or off doing other projects. Even Tupac and Biggie still have albums released even though they were both gunned down over 10 years ago.
With Artscroll you have 3 of the exact same siddurs in different packaging. The black cover, beige cover and the beige and white cover. Then you have the compact yet bulky siddur in beige. The skinny no English included in maroon, the transliterated maroon, and the transliterated in Russian and that is also maroon- which sucks because you rush to get the transliterated for yom tov or something only to discover that since you escaped from Russia before you learned to read, the siddur has no use for you.
Its funny because as many times as they have re-released the same siddurim that are just repackaged, the ever present Stone Chumash has been around for quite some time without them busting out a new one. Even Gutnick has released another chumash, they of course had only single sedras and then busted out the big mama chamisha chumshey torah.
If I could convey any sort of thing to Artscroll I would say this. How about a translation to keep your progressiveness of the times. Maybe something that is void of thee, thou and sages. How about normal words instead of the biblical “thee will smite you” crap. Also how about a siddur with normal old school lettering, and maybe a Spanish translated siddur.
40 responses so far ↓
1 // Jun 4, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I call ArtScroll the MicroSoft of Jewish publicaton. I remember the Shilo siddur, too.
2 // Jun 4, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I’ve been working on a Hebrew-Klingon translinear siddur for some time now.
3 // Jun 4, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Don’t worry, they’re making interlinear chumashim now.
4 // Jun 4, 2007 at 3:11 pm
which sucks because you rush to get the transliterated for yom tov or something only to discover that since you escaped from Russia before you learned to read, the siddur has no use for you.
LOL!!!
I have many Artscroll siddurim but since I learned to daven only in Hebrew without any translation, I find the translinear or the “translation on the page across” pretty annoying” cause when I am davening I want to concentrate on my prayer and not constantly turn pages cause the next page is all translation or the next line is in English or something. I am a happy camper in my shul, all the young people go grab the Artscrolls, and I go grab the old school siddurim.
5 // Jun 4, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Notice how Artscroll hasn’t put out anything interesting in the last year or so..
No new siddurim, exciting new translation.
6 // Jun 4, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Hesh, good one. We all started out with the Shilo. Then we graduated to the Tikun Meir, as Shilo was only for school children because it had line numbers! Then there was the Tiferes Yakov era. Now we are in the ARTSCROLL era, which has seen many evolutions.
7 // Jun 4, 2007 at 7:44 pm
lakewoodshmuck.blogspot.com
8 // Jun 4, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Awww, Shiloh siddurs!
That brings back such cute memories of Kabbalat Shabbat in elementary school. We’d do it very Friday afternoon; a girl would be the ima and a boy would be the abba and they’d lead the songs/prayers and we’d all eat challah and drink from those tiny bottles of grape juice. I loved being the ima, cuz I always loved Shabbat
Ah, gotta love secular Jewish elementary schools…
9 // Jun 4, 2007 at 10:03 pm
The Chabad shul I sometimes go to still uses the old Shiloh Siddurim, but my normal shul uses the damn Artscrolls with the interlineal translation with is pretty confusing for someone who doesn’t read Hebrew because the English is all printed backwards in the way you would read Hebrew. So when it says “Shema Israel” in Hebrew it says under that “Israel, O.” Which is incredibly annoying and confusing to say the least.
10 // Jun 4, 2007 at 10:05 pm
I forgot to also mention that along with the backwards English it has these little arrows pointing the opposite way of the way that you are supposed to be reading the English:
“Israel, O”
>>>>>>
which adds to the confusion.
11 // Jun 5, 2007 at 8:55 am
“the siddurs cover would become tattred and then the little threads would all start coming loose until you had to tear them off because it was too addicting”. Hello so true!…i was laughing so hard wen i read this…i used to always pick the pieces till there was like no cover left!
12 // Jun 5, 2007 at 8:56 am
Btw I love artscroll (not the interlinear) because it always tells me when to stand, when to bow, when to say something out loud etc…I need the instructions.
13 // Jun 5, 2007 at 10:32 am
I like the classic Artscroll siddurim, but I can’t stand the interlinear one.
14 // Jun 5, 2007 at 11:11 am
Here is the real skinny. The information industry is a trillion dollar industry. Publishing has always been the best way to make money. Shilo siddurim are awesome, but as someone else mentioned, they were intended for children, kinda like reading rainbow, and the oregon trail. I remember reading about a siddur shilo with Art Garfunkel’s name penciled in was sold on ebay 6 or 7 years ago.
If you wanna rag on the Jewish publishing industry, try picking a fight with what I like to call the “Plagiarism Era” where people compile other peoples stories and rush them to print. almost a dozen maggid books, visions of greatness, stories for the soul, and whoever knows whatelse is out there.
Personally, I am quite happy with my Storyteller and back of Olumeinu’s!
That was the life, stop telling us about chaim yankel who tied his shoe properly and missed his train which blew up in an esrog plant, so he names his kid lulava.
I would much rather hear about Rebbi Nachmun, or mendel the mouse, or even on a rainy day some good old Detective B.na .
Amen!
15 // Jun 5, 2007 at 11:44 am
I never used the Shilo siddur and was taught from the Green/Brown Ktav siddur. I also remember only people using the blue Birnbaum siddur as well. People started to use the Artscroll because it was the only siddur that had english as well as instructions for the different things you should do during davening. Once the Artscroll became popular tthey started doing other things. I use the Metsudah now since i like the way they do the interlinear. When the Metsudah started to get popular, Arstcroll copied them and put the transliteration under the words instead of next to it. Metsudah also has the interlinear chumash which artscroll will probably copy. Soncino, Ktav and Steinsalz also had Gemaras in English but Artscroll came out with their own. I dont have a problem with Artscroll but they are not innovators but copiers. The only thing they did innovate was an English Siddur with instructions.
16 // Jun 5, 2007 at 11:56 am
The Shpy rules!
17 // Jun 5, 2007 at 11:57 am
Heshy - one again you crack me up! Thanks!
“How about normal words instead of the biblical “thee will smite you” crap. Also how about a siddur with normal old school lettering, and maybe a Spanish translated siddur. “
18 // Jun 5, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Mel, How about K’tonton!
19 // Jun 5, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Psychotoddler had a pot on this once. I like the interlinear since I know most of what the words mean. If I forget one I simply look below and behold the translation is right there. Also as a musician I’m uised to reading two things at once.
20 // Jun 5, 2007 at 8:39 pm
i just don’t like turning pages, so for me the best is when they cram the most words on one page. Artscroll does not do well in this, especially with any kind of translation. The best i have found is the siddurim they put in the back of the small chumashim. they have about 5-10 regular pages for one page turn’s worth.
More importantly, i avoid artscroll because i don’t want anyone to think i am a baal tshuva chas veshalom.
21 // Jun 6, 2007 at 7:41 am
I have not been on the net since I published this article- so thats why response is late.
So I davened in the White Shull yesterday in Far Rockaway and lo and behold I cam across an interesting oddity. There were normal weekday artscroll siddurs that were a tad smaller then the wide and flat maroon ones- yet these were bright blue covers. Everything was the same besides the covers and the maybe 1/2 inch of so of smallness. Once again I was going to cal up Eichlers’ lobbying department so they can push ahead with the Jewish Anti-trust legislation that broke apart the Hadar, Unger and Seasons conglomerate that dominate the crappy heimishe mayo and ketchup market for years.
22 // Jun 6, 2007 at 10:57 am
There actually is a Spanish siddur out there - I saw it here in Israel recently.
It’s from South America, but I can’t remember which nusach.
23 // Jun 7, 2007 at 5:41 pm
At home, I still use my Birnbaum edition, printed in 1952. Most of the pages are still in excellent condition. In my shul, most siddurim are blue Birnbaum, and most chumashim are Hertz edition.
The shul shelf also has a dozen Hebrew-only Artscroll siddurim for visitors and Hebrew purists.
24 // Jun 7, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Thats because your shull is old school. I am actually working on a post about judging folks based on siddur choice.
25 // Jun 7, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I like my artscroll siddur, but it’s not even in my nusach! lol, it was a present from someone when I started becoming religious. I ue it in school when we’re learning bout tefillot.
Now I use one for Sefardim for davening, like I’m supposed to, and I love it
26 // Jun 7, 2007 at 9:19 pm
“Maybe something that is void of thee, thou and sages. How about normal words instead of the biblical “thee will smite you” crap.”
Artscroll may have its problems, but one of their main points is the elimination of archaic language from the translation, compared to birnbaum/soncino or whatever.
27 // Jun 7, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Indeed, my shul is mostly elderly, with a few young families, and a sizable Talmud Torah that davens separately in a classroom.
Our Hertz chumash includes not only chazal, but also the comments of historians, and non-Jewish writers. For many haredim, that’s a no-no.
Between seudat shlishit and maariv motzae Shabbos, the shul loudly recites Psalm 144 and 67. Our Havdalah ends with loudly reciting Psalm 128, also a German tradition.
I hope you don’t judge me to be an elderly yekkie. I happen to be younger than you!
28 // Jun 11, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Artscroll has a spanish siddur its the Edicion Fischmann “el sidur Artscroll completo”.
29 // Jun 14, 2007 at 11:38 am
I still have my shiloh from 1st grade, and it was used so much (three times a day, four on shabbos and yomtov {As a kid I davened shachris shabbos and yomtov, ate breakfast, learned a shtikel, then davened musaf}) but now I, as a nusach s’fardnik (I’m chassidische/yekkishe {don’t ask} in a litvishe shul/yeshiva) I, during the voch use the breslov “Eis Rotzon” siddur, Its got a great peirush and is the perfect size (Cant stand shul size artscroll, mini year-round artscroll or big artscroll all hebrew (I use that on shabbos, nusach sfard, because it was the only shabbos siddur I could find in nusach s’fard when I got my new siddurim.) I, when davening in a nusach ashkenaz shul (for the kehilloh) use birnbaum or whatever the shul provides.
30 Michael // Oct 30, 2007 at 12:07 am
I’m old fashioned, I guess - I will always love the Birnbaum siddur. I say that even though I am Sephardic (and thus use - can you guess? - the deSola Pool siddur). Both have a nice balance in their typography and both attempt to translate according to the overall meaning rather than literally word for word.
31 Hesh // Oct 30, 2007 at 1:08 am
The problem with the birnbaum is that the translation is so old school. I just cannot stand the “and he will smite you” kind of lingo.
De Sola Pool sounds like a resort in Spain.
32 Nadav // Feb 10, 2008 at 10:08 pm
“With Artscroll you have 3 of the exact same siddurs in different packaging. The black cover, beige cover and the beige and white cover.”
Not true. Black is the RCA edition: it contains the Prayer for the State of Israel. Beige is the standard edition and doesn’t have it (someone called it the antizionist siddur at my shul). I don’t know anything about the third one
33 heshman // Feb 12, 2008 at 3:36 am
So basically its kind of like when the Beatles re-release an album throw some outtakes on the extra cd and call it the new edition.
34 chnyock // Mar 4, 2008 at 6:45 pm
as long as noone puts up some real competition to artscroll, were doomed to having them around for a long time to come
35 JS // Apr 5, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Go, Birnbaum! That’s the one that they gave me at my Bat Mitzvah at Monsey Jewish Center in 1989 — and I still use it.
36 geshmakster // Apr 28, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I like the siddur vilna. It’s more yeshivish, and it has all the geshmak halachos from the mishna brura no one knows about!
37 s(b.) // May 8, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Looks like Artscroll might have some competition: http://www.ou.org/index.php/news/article/39691/
38 yehupitz // Jul 1, 2008 at 10:26 pm
>Also how about a siddur with normal old school lettering
There you go! I actually have no major complaints about Artscroll, unlike those MO Professors and blogs that nag all year long about how they are so right-wing and anti-MO etc. Yes, Artscroll is chareidi. Deal with it and get a life.
The one thing I can’t stand though is their Hebrew font. They need to try out some other types.
39 heshman // Jul 2, 2008 at 11:40 am
They need to do the shiloh siddur font- maybe they could do a special edition pink siddur for all the gay folks amongst us.
40 Frum Funky Fab (slightly eidel) // Aug 7, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Nadav, that is SO INTERESTING, thank you for pointing that out.
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