Rachel Mayer (1870-1952)
Post date: Oct 15, 2020 6:30:43 PM
Rachel Mayer was the first known female English translator of the Haggadah in a non-English speaking country. She lived and worked in Vienna and translated the Haggadah for the Appel Brothers, owners of the Union Publishing Company. They published a Haggadah with Mayer’s translation in 1921 and republished it a year later. She was also responsible for the English translation of a general prayer book Siddur Tefillot Yisra’el Kolel Tefillot Kol HaShanah KeMinhag Polin, The Order of Prayers (Vienna: Union Printing Comp. Limited [Brothers Appel], 1921/22). Her Haggadah translation is especially interesting because it contains a rhyming translation for the last song in the Haggadah “One Pet Kid!” (lines 711-734). This was an original piece of work and sets it aside as a playful translation, suitable for children. The poem which is presented below. I did not find any other English work done by her and the Archive of the Jewish Community of Vienna does not have any information about her.
However, through extensive research, I have traced her to a Rachel Mayer who created a Hebrew play for children on “The Vision of Isaiah”, Ḥazon Yeshʻayahu : Maḥazeh li-yeladim be-shalosh maʻarkhot /me-et Raḥel Meʼir, published in Israel. This play can be found in the personal archive of L.A. Mayer, an archive curated by the Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center. Leo Aryeh Mayer (1895–1959) was a prominent scholar of Islamic art and archaeology in Palestine/Israel, and one of the founding fathers of the School of Oriental Studies (est. 1926) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His mother, Rachel Mayer, wrote this play and she was apparently the translator of the 1921 Vienna Haggadah. Born in Stanislau, Austria-Hungary (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine), L.A. Mayer graduated from the gymnasium in his hometown, consequently starting his studies at the University of Vienna, where he also submitted his PhD on town planning in Muslim cities. Simultaneously, he studied in the rabbinical seminary of Vienna. Raised a “convinced and stauch Zionist” (Rice, D., & Hirschberg, H., 1961, p. 454) he emigrated to Palestine with his parents in 1921 - the same year the Appel brothers published the Haggadah which explains why they did not publish any further translations from her hand.
L. A. Mayer
When contacted, the curator of the L.A. Mayer archive assured me that although he had never heard of the Haggadah, the mother of L.A. Mayer was indeed most probably the English translator of the Haggadah because the time frame fits, because of her interest in writing for children and because she was a very literate woman, described as having an outstanding poetic talent with a good command of languages.
Translation of Chad Gadya
God the Lord
Cut then short
Angel "Death”,
Who in wrath
Came and slew
Butcher due,
Who did kill
Bull which ill
Drank its fill
From the same
That quenched Flame,
Which burnt Stick
(Big and thick)
That did flog
The foul Dog!
Which bit Cat
(Fierce and fat)
That just did
Eat pet Kid.
Father bid
For pet Kid
Two zuzim —
('Twas so trim!)
One pet Kid ,
One pet Kid!