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Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

This is an archive of prayers composed in response to an incident of hateful intolerance, prejudice, and bigotry.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and translation of a historical prayer.

Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

Our Enemies, an exhortation to look inward to resolve conflict (CCAR 1923)

“Our Enemies” is the thirty-first prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 105-107. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume. However, the pacifist language and argument in this prayer strongly identifies it as having been written by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Self-Reflection

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., combating anti-Jewish oppression, English vernacular prayer, exhortation, Jewish pacifism, paraliturgical shover oyvim, שובר אויבים shover oyvim, teḥinot in English, תוכחות tokheḥot

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Abraham Cronbach and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

[Prayer for] Our Contemners, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1924)

Titled “Our Contemners,” this prayer from Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is the second in his collection of prayer, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 8 through 11.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., combating anti-Jewish oppression, English vernacular prayer, Jewish pacifism, paraliturgical shover oyvim, שובר אויבים shover oyvim, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

Abraham Cronbach and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

שׁוֹבֵר אוֹיְבִים | Prayer for Our Enemies, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1932)

This prayer, entitled “[Prayer for] Our Enemies,” was published in The Jewish Peace Book for Home and School (1932) under “Section Ⅲ: Peace Devotions for Jewish Use — Prayers for Peace” on pages 100-101. This prayer seems to me to be inspired by (or a reformulation of) the traditional twelfth blessing of the weekday Amidah, שׁוֹבֵר אוֹיְבִים וּמַכְנִיעַ זֵדִים shovér oyvim u-makhniya zedim (“who breaks enemies and overpowers evil ones”) a/k/a la-malshinim or al haminim.

Categories:

Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty, Weekday Amidah, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

English vernacular prayer, interwar period, Jewish pacifism, paraliturgical shover oyvim, שובר אויבים shover oyvim

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Abraham Cronbach

דאָנאַ, דאָנאַ | Dona, Dona — a song by Aaron Zeitlin for the Yiddish play Esterke (1940), with Ladino and Aramaic translations by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Originally written by Aaron Zeitlin for the Yiddish play “Esterke” in 1940, ‘Dona Dona’ is a popular song the world over, having been adapted to many languages — often not preserving the original, deeply Jewish context. The gist of the original lyrics, which never state their metaphor outright, is: a calf is bound to a wagon being dragged to the slaughterhouse. It looks up and sees a swallow flying around. The farmer shouts at it, saying “it’s your own fault for being a calf and not a bird!” The implication being: the people telling the Jews it’s our own fault we’re persecuted are the ones driving the wagon. Gentiles will murder Jews, the song implies to us, and then say Jews are to blame because of how murderable our Jewish face is, so maybe we should get a less murderable and more goyish face. But the whole time they’re the one with the knife. Here included is the original Yiddish text (in the Ukrainish theatre dialect), as well as new translations into Ladino and Aramaic.

Categories:

🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

anti-predatory, Aramaic translation, Ladino Translation, predation, עין הרע predatory gaze (ill will/evil eye), predatory nature, צער באלי חיים tsa'ar baalei ḥayyim, Yiddish songs

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Aaron Zeitlin

[Prayer] in Spring, by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (ca. 1950s)

A prayer “in spring” that uses the metaphor of mining for seeking out the goodness in one’s fellow.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, Community, English vernacular prayer, fellowship, love your fellow as yourself, Problematic prayers, Trenton Six

Contributor(s):

Avraham Samuel Soltes and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה לארצות הברית לאחר הטבח בפּיטסבּורג | Prayer for the United States after the Pittsburgh Massacre, by Rabbi Stephen Belsky (2018)

A prayer composed in the aftermath of the mass murder of the Dor Ḥadash community at the Ets Ḥayyim (Tree of Life) Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh on Shabbat morning 27 October 2018.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Terror, 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags:

2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., mass murder inside a synagogue, Prayers after acts of terrible violence, prayers for municipalities, United States

Contributor(s):

Stephen Belsky

From the Depths: A Prayer For Christchurch, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor (2019)

A prayer written in response to the massacre of Muslim worshipers during Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Christchurch mosque shootings, prayers for municipalities

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

אוֹי לַלֵב שֶׁאֵינָה שְׁבוּרָה | Woe to the Heart that is not Broken, a ḳinah by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen (2019)

A ḳinnah composed in response to the agonizing and cruel United States immigration policy implemented under the presidency of Donald Trump.

Categories:

Tishah b'Av, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Immigration policy of Donald Trump, אוי oy, קינות Ḳinōt, United States Immigration Policy, welcome the immigrant

Contributor(s):

Aryeh Cohen

אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָה, נוּסַח פִּיטְסְבּוּרְג | Eileh Ezkarah for Pittsburgh, by Rabbi Jonathan Perlman with Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum & Rabbi Martin Cohen (2019)

A ḳinah for the martyrs of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Boston in 2018.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Terror

Tags:

2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., martyrdom, mass murder inside a synagogue, Prayers after acts of terrible violence, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Jonathan Perlman, Tamar Elad-Appelbaum and Martin Samuel Cohen

Gratitude Prayer, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor on the first anniversary of the Pittsburgh Tree of Life massacre (2019)

A prayer on the first anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Terror

Tags:

2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Gratitude

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

A Prayer for the Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

A prayer in solidarity with the Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene, whose building was the target of hateful vandalism.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-fascist, English vernacular prayer, Iowa, Iowa City, solidarity, standing together

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

סדר לאבד פסלי עבודה זרה | Service for Destroying Idolatrous Statues, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (2020)

The argument that “statues preserve our heritage” is not one the halakhah tolerates, especially when the statues are celebrating the perpetrators of horrible atrocities. Here’s a service for those interested in fulfilling the Biblical commandment of destroying idolatrous statues. #BLM

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-fascist actions, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd protests, Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

I can’t breathe, We can’t breathe, Earth can’t breathe, a prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center 2020)

A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere.

Categories:

Ecotastrophes, Epidemics & Pandemics, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

2020 coronavirus pandemic, 2020 United States racial reckoning, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אלהי נשמה Elohai neshamah, English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical elohai neshamah, paraliturgical nishmat kol ḥai, Prayers as poems, September 2020 Western United States wildfires

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

Who Can’t Breathe? Three Outcries and a Prayer, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center 2021)

A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in 2021 reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere.

Categories:

Ecotastrophes, Epidemics & Pandemics, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

הֶן־עָם לְבָדָד יִשְׁכֹּן | “A People That Dwells Apart” — a ritual after withdrawing from those who left us alone, by Rabbi Dr. Andrea Zanardo

A ritual and liturgy for Jews who have felt compelled to withdraw from friendships, organisations, or social and religious environments in which antisemitism, hostility towards Israel, or the dismissal of Jewish grief had become tolerated or normalised. It is intended particularly for those who have already established a practical boundary—by leaving, blocking, unfollowing, or ending a relationship—and who need a Jewish ritual through which to acknowledge the resulting grief and affirm their dignity, solidarity, and continued connection to the Jewish people.

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., apotropaic rituals of protection, combating antisemitism, community support, English vernacular prayer, הבדלות havdalot, Mental Health

Contributor(s):

Andrea Zanardo

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

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