Background
Singer was born in London in 1846 to a Hungarian father and English mother.
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Singer was born in London in 1846 to a Hungarian father and English mother.
At age 8 (1855) his mother took him to visit Raab, then in Hungary. She believed he would get a better education there, but shortly after their arrival she contracted cholera and died within 24 hours. Simeon remained there a few months with family members, and then returned to London. He "possessed an exceptional mind", and at the age of 13 he was the recipient of the Barnett Myers Scholarship, allowing him to study.
He became a student at the Day School of Jews' College, which had only recently been founded in 1855. The curriculum of the school was wide and in addition to Biblical Hebrew, included English, French, German, as well as Mathematics and Science. Singer thus spoke German and French fluently, and some Italian, acquired a working knowledge of Latin and Greek, and was generally well-educated in the arts and sciences.
In 1867 he became minister of the Borough Synagogue, London.
He moved to the new West End Synagogue in 1878, and remained the minister of that congregation until his death. He was the first to introduce regular sermons to children; as a preacher to the young Singer showed rare gifts. His pulpit addresses in general won wide appreciation, and his services were often called for at public functions. In 1897 he strongly opposed the Diggle policy at the London School Board, but he refused nomination as a member. In 1890 the Rabbinical Diploma was conferred on him by Lector Weiss of Vienna, but again he evidenced his self-denial by declining to stand for the post of associate Chief Rabbi in the same year. Singer was a power in the community in the direction of moderate progress; he was a lover of tradition, yet at the same time he recognized the necessity of well-considered changes. In 1892 at his instigation the first English Conference of Jewish Preachers was held, and some reforms were then and at other times introduced, such as the introduction of Bible Readings in English, the admission of women as choristers and the inclusion of the express consent of the bride as well as the bridegroom at the marriage ceremony.
Singer's most famous work was his new edition and English translation of the Authorized Daily Prayer Book (published in 1890), a work which has gone through many large editions and which has probably been the most popular (both with Jews and Christians) of any book published by an English Jew. The Hebrew text was that of Seligman Baer's classic Avodat Yisrael, to which Singer provided an "authorised" version of the liturgy capable of standardising and stabilising the synagogue service and helping to create an "established" Judaism in Britain and the Commonwealth (the so-called "Minhag Anglia". )
The Siddur was expanded in 1917 under Chief Rabbi Joseph Hertz; 1934 saw a "continuous" version, minimising the need for cross-reference, and which also incorporated additional material. The 1962 Second Edition, under Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie, was completely re-typeset; also the translation was amended where it had become unclear or archaic, and further additional material had been introduced. The Centenary Edition of 1990 saw an extensively revised translation by Rabbi Eli Cashdan, and also included a series of explanatory notes by Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits. In 2006, Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks penned a new translation, with commentary, instructions, laws & rubrics; this Fourth Edition formed the basis for the Koren Sacks Siddur published 2009.
This Siddur – in its various editions – has remained the standard prayer book for most orthodox Jews in Great Britain, and for many in the Commonwealth, and is still informally known as the "Singer's Siddur. " In 1915 the Bloch Publishing Company published an American version, The Standard Prayer Book, which was widely used until the introduction of Philip Birnbaum's Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem in 1949.
In 1896 the Cambridge University Press published Talmudical Fragments in the Bodleian Library of which Singer was joint author with Solomon Schechter.
Israel Abrahams had access to all of his manuscripts and, after Singer's death, produced three volumes of his literary remains (1908). In 1914, Abrahams also published an annotated edition of Singer's Siddur, with "Historical and Explanatory Notes".
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Singer did much to reunite Conservatives and Liberals in the community, and he himself preached at the Reform Synagogue in Manchester.
He was one of the leading spirits of the Russo-Jewish Committee, of the International Jewish Society for the Protection of Women and of other philanthropic organisations.
His cheery optimism was at the basis of this attitude, and strongly coloured his belief in the Messianic ideals.
In 1868 he married.
