Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits on 14 June 1988

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Laszlo Berkowits

Shared on:

26 November 2022 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies, US Flag Day (June 14), United States of America

Tags:

58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, flags banners and escutcheons, 100th Congress, 20th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits, Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, Virginia
Date of Prayer: 14 June 1988
Sponsor: Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA)

Rep. Wolf: Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to welcome to the House of Representatives Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits, who offered our prayer today. Rabbi Berkowits lives in the 10th District of Virginia in Arlington and is Rabbi at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. Rabbi Berkowits is celebrating his 25th year in the pulpit of Temple Rodef Shalom and Iam pleased that he can share his thoughts with us today in our opening prayer.Twenty-five years is an admirable accomplishment. It has come to my attention that Rabbi Berkowits has celebrated over 1,000 bar-bat mitzvahs, 500 brisses and baby namings, 200 weddings, 25 confirmations, and 25 years of leading his congregation through both happy and trying times. This would be a lifetime of activities to rest on, however, Rabbi Berkowits continues to be an active part of his community partially spurred by his experiences in Europe as a survivor of the Holocaust. As a concentration camp prisoner at the end of the war Rabbi Berkowits was moved from Budapest to the infamous Auschwitz camp, then as the allies advanced on Hitler’s army he was moved to Ravensburg and finally to Wobbelin where he was liberated by United States 82d Airborne troops. Rabbi Berkowits’ journey to northern Virginia is a truly remarkable story and is an example of the perseverance and unity the Jewish people have exhibited in pulling themselves from under the repressions and atrocities of World War II. I celebrate with Rabbi Berkowits and his congregation in his 25th year in northern Virginia, I welcome him to the House of Representatives and I thank him for opening our session today in prayer. In the prayer, this being Flag Day, Rabbi Berkowits mentioned the American flag. Rabbi Berkowits says that when he was liberated by the 82d Airborne, the first thing that he saw was the American flag, and that is what is specially meaningful, that the rabbi is giving the prayer here today on Flag Day.

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Source (English)

O Lord of the Universe, Author of Freedom,
our hearts are filled with thanksgiving
on this day dedicated to honor the Stars and Stripes,
the flag of our beloved country.
This flag has been, ever since its creation,
a symbol of hope for the oppressed,
a banner of liberty
for the enslaved
yearning to be free.

To this very day
this precious symbol of free men and women
stirs the hearts of our countrymen
to deeds of valor and sacrifice
as it did for the generations who came before us.
For it is the banner of freedom,
the proud flag of the liberators.
Wherever it is raised and unfurled,
it heralds the sacred message:
“Proclaim liberty throughout the land
to all the inhabitants thereof.” (Leviticus 25:10)
O, may it long wave to the joy of our country
and for freedom everywhere.
Amen.

Source(s)

100th Congress, 2nd Session. C-SPAN.
Congressional Record, Vol. 134, Part 10 — Bound Edition, p. 14316.

Congressional Record v. 134, part 10 – 14 June 1988. p. 14316

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“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Laszlo Berkowits on 14 June 1988” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal 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.)

the Congressional Record of the United States of America

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Printing Office and issued when Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks. At the end of a session of Congress, the daily editions are compiled in bound volumes constituting the permanent edition. Statutory authorization for the Congressional Record is found in Chapter 9 of Title 44 of the United States Code. (wikipedia)

Laszlo Berkowits

Laszlo Berkowits (February 29, 1928 – December 13, 2020) was a Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi. From 1944 to 1945, he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. After his release in 1945, he studied briefly in Sweden before he moved to the United States, where he began studying to be a rabbi. He was ordained in 1963. In 1963, he was hired by Temple Rodef Shalom as its first senior rabbi. He held this title for 35 years, prior to his retirement in July, 1998. In 1988, he received his Doctor of Divinity from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He served as Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Rodef Shalom until his death.

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Works of related interest:

Flag of the United States House of Representatives

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Arnold Mark Belzer on 20 April 1988

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom on 4 May 1988

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt on 25 May 1988

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Joshua O. Haberman on 4 June 1985

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Stuart L. Berman on 18 June 1986

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Irving J. Block on 2 June 1983

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Israel O. Goldberg on 4 June 1971

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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