Prayer for a Service of Intercession [for European Jewry during the Holocaust], by Lilian Helen Montagu (ca. 1940)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Lilian Helen Montagu

Shared on:

26 August 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags:

World War Ⅱ, the Holocaust, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., British Jewry, English vernacular prayer

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	We would speak to Thee, our Father, while our hearts are oppressed with a deep sense of sorrow. Our coreligionists are being treated with unspeakable cruelty, from which death itself is a deliverance. We suffer with and for them, but we are unable to help. We cry unto Thee, How long, Oh Lord, how long?^[1] Cf. Psalms 13:2 We know that our enemies cannot affect the Jewish spirit, and we ask Thee to give us the courage to be faithful to Judaism, and to do honour to the martyrs among our people by being true to the faith for which they are dying, and to express it in our lives.
	In all our afflictions, Thou art afflicted, Oh God of love and peace. We humbly ask Thee to speed the time of abiding peace and may we be among those who will be allowed to work with Thee and for Thee in the deliverance of humanity from oppression and fear. Only in that deliverance can our brotherhood find their salvation.
	Amen.

This undated “Special prayer for Service of Intercession” by the Hon. Lily H. Montagu (1873-1963) from the archives of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London, was published in, Lily Montagu: Sermons, Addresses, Letters, and Prayers (ed. Ellen M. Umansky, 1985), pp. 356-357. From the contents, it reads as if it was composed in response to the terrifying news of the tortuous treatment of European Jews during the Holocaust. In 1940, other “intercession” services were offered with comparative prayers; for example, this one by the chief rabbi J.H. Hertz included in the Prayer Book for H.M. Forces.

Source(s)

Lily Montagu, sermons, addresses, letters, and prayers – Religious Leader – p. 356

Lily Montagu, sermons, addresses, letters, and prayers – Religious Leadership – p. 357

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Cf. Psalms 13:2

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“Prayer for a Service of Intercession [for European Jewry during the Holocaust], by Lilian Helen Montagu (ca. 1940)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Lilian Helen Montagu

The Hon. Lilian Helen "Lily" Montagu, CBE (22 December 1873 – 22 January 1963) was the first woman to play a major role in Progressive Judaism. Until the age of 15, she was educated at Doreck College, and privately educated thereafter. In 1893 she founded with Emily Marion Harris the West Central Jewish Girls Club (which subsequently merged into the Jewish Girls' Brigade). She was active in social improvement, particularly in respect to unemployment, sweat shops and bad housing. In 1901 and 1902, Montagu laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Jewish Religious Union in London. In February 1902 she arranged the first meeting of the Jewish Religious Union for the Advancement of Liberal Judaism at her sister Henrietta Franklin's house. The Union set up the first synagogue in Liberal Judaism in the UK and helped found the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Montagu was a founding member with her sister of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. She sat on the executive committee and led the meetings in prayer. Following the retirement of Leo Baeck, Montagu served for a brief stint (1955–1959) in her 80s as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, before handing the reins over to Solomon Freehof.

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Works of related interest:

[Children’s] Prayer for a Youth Service during World War Ⅱ, by Lilian Helen Montagu (11 April 1942)

Prayer of Intercession [for Britain in the War against Nazi Germany], by Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1940)

Prayer for German Jewry under Nazi oppression (Bombay 1938)

תפילה לעזרת היהודים תושבי גרמניה | Prayer for German Jewry under Nazi oppression before and after Kristallnacht (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1938)

Detail of transtropilized translation of a portion of the Lamentation on the Holocaust by Simon Zuker (translated by Gertrude Hirschler).

קִינָה עַל חֻרְבָּן הָאַחֲרוֹן | Lamentation on the Holocaust, by Shimon Zuker (1980)

שִׁיר הַגְאוּלָה (החיינו אל) | Shir ha-Ge’ulah (Song of Redemption), by an anonymous author (1940)

[Children’s] Prayer for Ḥanukkah, by Lilian Helen Montagu (5 December 1942)

"Person holding baby's index finger" (credit: Aditya Romansa)

Service for the Blessing of a Baby, by Lilian Helen Montagu (1962)

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The Liberation of Bergen-belsen Concentration Camp, April 1945 Overview of Camp No 1, now substantially evacuated, taken from a watch tower used by the German guards. (credit: No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Oakes, H (Sgt), license: PD)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17