reform In the 1920s, Hertz successfully organised international opposition to a proposed calendar reform. The League of Nations was considering a calendar amendment, The World Calendar, such that a given date would fall on the same day of the week every year. This requires that one day every year (two in leap years) is not any day of the week but a "world day". Thus, once or twice a year there would be eight days rather than seven between consecutive Saturdays. Thus the Jewish Sabbath, which must occur every seventh day, would be on a different weekday each year. The same applies to the Christian Sabbath. Hertz realised that this would cause problems for Jews and Christians alike in observing their Sabbaths, and mobilised worldwide religious opposition to defeat the proposal. Honours He was made a Companion of Honour in 1943. He was also Commander of the Order of Léopold II of Belgium and had a Columbia University medal. A memorial plaque on his former London home at 103 Hamilton Terrace, Maida Vale was unveiled on 12 March 1996. Publications Affirmations of Judaism, a collection of his sermons, was well regarded. He published a further three volumes of Sermons, Addresses, and Studies. A Book of Jewish Thoughts (1917), a selection of Jewish wisdom through the millennia, was immensely popular and ran to 25 editions. The Battle for the Sabbath at Geneva, an account of his work opposing calendar reform. Hertz edited a Hebrew-English edition of the Jewish Prayer Book or Siddur (1946), and contributed to the Jewish Encyclopedia and the Encyclopædia Britannica. Hertz Chumash Hertz edited a significant commentary on the Torah (1929–36, one volume edition 1937). Published as The Pentateuch and Haftorahs and popularly known as the Hertz Chumash, this classic Hebrew-English edition of the Five Books of Moses, with corresponding Haftorahs, is used in many synagogues and classrooms throughout the English-speaking world. The work - through its commentary and essays - is noted for its stance against Higher Criticism. It is also referred to as the Hertz Pentateuch, and it includes the following features: "extensive essays on ... perceived conflict between science and religion" comparisons of "Torah’s laws and those in the Code of Hammurabi" comments from and source references to Christian sources, including the Authorized Version (King James Version) and Revised Version It also includes views of the most important medieval Jewish commentators, such as Abraham ibn