Rabbi Jules Harlow, a liturgist who brought a poet’s sensibility and a musician’s cadence to the style of prayer in Conservative Judaism for much of the second half of the 20th century, died on Feb. 12. For a time, Rabbi Harlow’s major works — prayer books for daily, Sabbath, festival and High Holy Days use — became the standards for worship in Conservative synagogues in North America. Several of his books sold well over 100,000 copies each, according to the Rabbinical Assembly, which published them. Conservative Judaism, which occupies a middle ground between the more liberal Reform and the more traditional Orthodox, was the largest movement in American Judaism until Reform surpassed it in the 1990s. Though Hebrew is the language of Jewish prayer, Rabbi Harlow aspired to make the prayer book accessible to those who did not speak the language.

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Persons: Jules Harlow, Navah Harlow, Rabbi Harlow’s, —, Rabbi Harlow Organizations: Rabbinical Assembly Locations: North America