“Prayer for Ukraine” by Rabbi Dr. Reuven Kimelman was first published by Brandeis University on their website.

A prayer for a Yizkor service on Yom Kippur during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

An Intention for Eating on Yom Kippur was written by Rabba Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez and appears in הַרְחֶב פִּֽיךָ וַאֲמַלְאֵֽהוּ Open Your Mouth Wide, and I (God) Will Fill It: Prayers and Rituals for those who need to eat on Yom Kippur (2022), p. 4.

This is a “Blessing for the human creation” composed by Rabbi Esteban Gottfried for a mi sheberakh delivered after the Torah reading of twin siblings celebrating their bar and bat mitsvah. Both children came into this world through medical intervention, egg donation, and surrogate pregnancy. “It was a really moving ceremony,” said Rabbi Gottfried, “it is very rare that the parents are in touch with the egg donor and pregnancy surrogate (from the US and Ukraine) thirteen years later, and they all celebrate together….After their ascent to the Torah, I asked the parents together with the donor and the surrogate to take the stage and greet them. I share here (with their approval) the blessing of the “Human Creation.”

A prayer for democracy everywhere, with Ukraine foremost in mind.

“A Prayer for Eating on Yom Kippur” was written by A Mitzvah to Eat (Sarah Osborne) and appears in הַרְחֶב פִּֽיךָ וַאֲמַלְאֵֽהוּ Open Your Mouth Wide, and I (God) Will Fill It: Prayers and Rituals for those who need to eat on Yom Kippur (2022).

A prayer for Ukraine by Rabbi Miriam Klimova in Hebrew and Ukrainian first shared via her Facebook page on 24 February 2022.

“Prayer for the People of Ukraine” was written by the chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, Ephraim Mirvis, and shared via the Twitter account of the Office of the Chief Rabbi.

A prayer for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), written in response to their laudable decision to halt the deportation of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda.

“The Fifth Child: The Refugee Child” was written by Rabbi Julie Schonfeld for a Passover Seder Haggadah supplement published by Jewish Democratic Women for Action (Passover 2022).

“A Prayer upon the Death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second” was written by Rabbi Alexandra Wright, Senior Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue (St John’s Wood), and President of Liberal Judaism in the UK. The prayer was shared through the Open Siddur Project via our Facebook discussion group on 8 September 2022, by Rabbi Lea Mühlstein, Senior Rabbi of the Ark Synagogue (NPLS).

“A Prayer for the Flood Stricken” was offered by Rabbi David Dine Wirtschafter and shared via his Facebook page on 28 July 2022. He adds, “Please contribute to the Team Eastern Kentucky Relief Fund.”

This prayer for those who must eat on Jewish fast days, was shared by Sarah Osborne for A Mitzvah to Eat on Facebook. The Hebrew translation of the prayer was offered by Rabba Dr. Anat Sharbat.

“Prayer for Ukraine” by Menachem Creditor was first shared by Rabbi Menachem Creditor through a post in the Open Siddur Project Discussion Group on Facebook.

A prayer for Uvalde and for all of us, from a little over three hours away, up the road in Austin…

Qevelta de-Liba’i (“My Heart’s Lament”) is a melancholy song I wrote in Targumic Judeo-Aramaic in 2010. This piece is an existential peek into an old man’s private moment. He looks in the mirror and waxes wistful, longing for his bygone youth.

Jews around the world fast on the day after Rosh haShanah to commemorate the murder of Gedalyahu son of Aḥiqam, the officer appointed over Judah who sought to make peace and rebuild before being murdered by a religious extremist and officially bringing an end to the first commonwealth era. The tragedy of Gedalyahu is not just that he was assassinated, but that he was assassinated by a Jew who was using religion (specifically his claim to the line of David) as an excuse. This narrative bears striking similarities to the murder of Prime Minister Yitzḥaq Rabin on 12 Marḥeshvan 5756. On account of this, some Jews have taken it upon themselves to memorialize Rabin on Tzom Gedalyahu as well. This piyyut could be added to the seliḥot for Tzom Gedalyahu, or part of a new seliḥot service for 12 Marḥeshvan.

A prayer for voting in the 2022 Israeli legislative election.

This is a brief prayer for America’s veterans and service members on Veterans Day

This is an egalitarian version of the Aneinu litany recited at the end of Seliḥot services, featuring equal representation for the women of the Tanakh and Talmud.

The words of Avinu Malkeinu are a little different from the standard translation. It doesn’t say in Hebrew, “we have no good deeds” (ein lanu ma’asim tovim), but rather, “there are no deeds in us” (ein banu ma’asim). The p’shat (literal meaning) implies that whatever we have done in the past does not have to live inside of us — we can release our deeds and be released from them, fully, to start over, like a newborn, to become whoever we need to become.

A paraliturgical adaptation of Psalms 92.

Invocation for a Memorial Day ceremony at the Washington DC Vietnam War Veterans Memorial.

We believe Jewish prayers and rituals can help to strengthen our mental well-being, resilience and recovery in the same way middot, or Jewish values, can promote them. Faith is an important part of healing for many, and Jewish thinkers and leaders historically have brought the two together. When someone is ill or recovering from illness or an accident, we often recite a mi sheberakh to wish them a refuah sheleimah, or a “full recovery.” We have expanded this prayer for those who are struggling with mental health with this Mi Sheberakh for Mental Health. –the Blue Dove Foundation

“A Prayer for Removing the Mask,” was composed by Rabbi Dr. Dalia Marx and Rabbi Inbar Bluzer Shalem in June 2021. The English translation was made by Alex Cicelsky.

“Holocaust Survivor Prayer” was written in English by Rabbi Avi Baumol in 2021 upon the establishment of Holocaust Survivor Day by the JCC of Krakow, Poland. The prayer was first published at the website of Holocaust Survivor Day.

A prayer for America on the day upon which right-wing militias carried out an insurrection upon the representative democratic institution of the United States.

A prayer for the government of the United States of America on the day of the 59th Presidential Inauguration.

This prayer for a parent (or primary caregiver) on the vaccination of their children by Cantor Hinda Labovitz was first shared via their Facebook page on 5 November 2021,

A prayer on being present in the moment of the inauguration of the 59th president of the United States.

A prayer upon receiving a vaccination for COVID.

Four blessings to recite upon commencing the Shmitah year in candlelighting for Rosh haShanah, and to add to subsequent shabbat and festival candlelightings.

A prayer for the government on a day of violent insurrection in the heart of American democracy.

Sources and meditation instructions excerpted from a larger source sheet on Not-knowing, Joy and Purim, from the Applied Jewish Spirituality “Kabbalah Through the Calendar” course.

A prayer of gratitude upon receiving a COVID vaccination.

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.

A comprehensive list of the Noaḥide laws recorded in early rabbinic traditions.

A hoshana prayer in the times of the COVID pandemic.

“A New Birkat haMazon/Blessing After the Meal” was first published by Rabbi Brant Rosen via his liturgy blog, Yedid Nefesh (8 March 2021). He writes, “In composing this new Birkat Hamazon/Blessing After the Meal, I maintained the essential structure of the traditional prayer, which consists of four basic spiritual themes or categories. As with the other new liturgies that I’ve written, I seek here to compose Jewish prayers that express a Diasporist ethic; that is to say, liturgy that views the entire world as our “homeland” and resists the influence of modern political Zionism, which has become so thoroughly enmeshed in contemporary Jewish liturgy.”

A pre-Shavuot prayer in the shadow of the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.

The ritual of kaparot using a bundle of money dedicated for tsedaqah.

This version of Eyshet Ḥayil replaces valor with value, and while it speaks of man in terms of family, community, and the natural world, it is not heteronormative.

A kavvanah for clarifying and elevating the activity of tax preparation.

A prayer for the observance of Memorial Day in the United States.

If you are doing a Rosh Hashanah seder of simanim (signs, augurs, portents) using food puns, here are some topical additions including for beginning the Shmitah year.

A prayer of intention before the meeting of the board of a philanthropic organization determining the recipients of the largess in their trust.

This short piyut touches on these four themes related to Shmitah: release of debts, the rights of the land, the rights of wild animals (who share our food during Shmitah), and the freeing of slaves. The piyut would fit as part of Seliḥot before Rosh haShanah and during Yom Kippur.

“Tilt: A Prayer for the Winter Solstice” was first published by the author on her website (17 December 2015).

“How Much Light? A Ḥanukkah Meditation” by Rabbi Menachem Creditor was first shared on the second night of Ḥanukkah 5782 (2021) via the Open Siddur Project discussion group on Facebook.

There’s a lot of controversy over Yom haShoah as a date. One of the key issues is this: traditionally, the ways Jews mourn communal tragedies is through establishing a fast day. It’s forbidden to fast during the month of Nisan. It’s hard to pick any specific date to commemorate a tragedy as enormous as the Shoah, but one which seems appropriate to me would be 16 Marḥeshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom. This piyyut is a seliḥah for Kristallnacht, to be recited on 16 Marḥeshvan (or 15 Marḥeshvan on years like 5782 where the sixteenth falls on a Thursday).