The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 16 June 1958.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 23 April 1958 on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 29 January 1958.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 21 April 1958.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 1 July 1957.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 28 May 1957.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 25 February 1957.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 10 May 1956.

The mi sheberakh for the IDF composed by Rabbi Shlomo Goren in the context of the Suez Crisis and Israel-Egypt conflict of 1956.

A prayer offered at the opening of a department store during the post-WWII economic expansion in the United States.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 20 July 1955.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 28 June 1955.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 18 April 1955.

A prayer for the recovery of President Dwight D. Eisenhower following a severe heart attack in late September 1955.

A prayer for Memorial Day in the United States, composed in 1954.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 1 June 1954.

A prayer of gratitude to be recited on Thanksgiving Day (or the Shabbat prior).

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 20 July 1953.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 3 February 1953.

The service in 1953 by the S&P Synagogue (Bevis Marks, London) in celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth.

This is the full invocation offered by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on 9 July 1952, as reported in an otherwise unidentified newspaper clipping titled, “Prayer for Guidance: Rabbi Silver Asks Blessing on Throng.” An abridged form of this prayer was published in the Jewish Independent, on Friday 11 July 1952.

This is the prayer offered at the “Memorial Service on Friday, 15th February, 1952 (Eve of Sabbath, 19th Shebat, 5712) at the New West End Synagogue (London, W. 2) for His Late Majesty King George (VI)” as given by the Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth (officiated by Dayan Dr. I. Grunfeld and Rabbi Dr. A. Altmann, M.A. [Joint Deputies for the Chief Rabbi], the Rev. Ephraim Levine, M.A., the Rev. R.H. Levy, M.A.). Many thanks to Jeffrey Maynard for providing the page images of the service containing this prayer at his blog, Jewish Miscellanies.

A prayer for planting a tree or trees.

A prayer composed for a ceremony honoring the tenure of Charles Henry Martens, mayor of East Orange, New Jersey on his retirement from three decades of civic service.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 13 February 1951.

“Closing Prayer [for Labor Day]” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.165.

This closing prayer for Arbor Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 86.

This opening prayer for Thanksgiving Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 304 — as preface to a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day.

This closing prayer for United Nations Day was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 272-273.

This closing prayer for Thanksgiving Day was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 327-328 — following at the end of a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day.

A prayer offered for parents praying for the safety and welfare of their adult children entering the armed forces.

This prayer by Rabbi Dr. David de Sola Pool was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), pp. 72-73.

This prayer by Rabbi Dr. Edgar Magnin, then serving as rabbi of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), p. 51.

A prayer for a Nurse’s Commencement ceremony at Beth Israel Hospital on 19 September 1951.

This prayer by Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, then President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), p. 11.

A prayer offered at a ceremony honoring the graduated of the New Jersey State Teachers’ College in Newark in 1951.

“Dignity of Labor” is a prayer for Labor Day first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.176-177.

“Opening Prayer on the Significance of [Labor] Day” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.165.

This prayer by Brigadier General Julius Klein was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), p. 47. The anthology notes that “Accompanying the prayer of General Klein, National Commander of Jewish War Veterans, U.S.A., is this message: ‘I wish to express the deep-seated conviction that this book of prayers will be warmly received by a world which is very much in need of closer contact with God.’”

This opening prayer for United Nations Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 249-250.

“War Can Be Abolished,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 262-265.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 25 April 1951.

“A Prayer of Re-dedication” (also simply called “Rededication”) is the thirty-fifth prayer in the “Meditations” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 199. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR’s 1923 collection of teḥinot). A close read of the prayer suggests to me that this prayer was written in the shadow of World War Ⅱ and the Holocaust, giving voice to concerns over Jewish continuity in the midst of post–World War II economic expansion and largess in the United States.

“Lead Us, Lord” (also called, “God’s Guidance”) is the thirty-seventh prayer in the “Meditations” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 201. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR’s 1923 collection of teḥinot).

“Repentance” is the thirty-sixth prayer in the “Meditations” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 200. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR’s 1923 collection of teḥinot).

A prayer to provide some relief and comfort tor an ill patient.

A prayer for American democracy as enshrined in Little League Baseball.

A prayer anticipating the spring as a metaphor for liberation, mental wellness, and spiritual rebirth.

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

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the twelfth month of the second session of the 81st US House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 96 part 12 (6 December 1950), p. 16206.