Veterans Day Prayer for Jewish War Veterans, by Rabbi Simeon Kobrinetz, Chaplain, USAF (Ret.)

Contributor(s):

Simeon Kobrinetz, Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Shared on:

26 February 2024 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Military Personnel & Veterans, Veterans Day

Tags:

58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, prayers of military chaplains, 20th century C.E.

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Let us pray, dear Lord, Father of all humankind, with joy in our hearts and reverence in our souls, we rise to conclude this sacred ceremony. As the flags whipping the breeze, so do our thoughts reverberate with gratitude for the courageous acts and self-sacrifice of our fellow countrymen.
	Today, we recognize the 100th anniversary of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States and their contributions on the battlefields to the cause of freedom and justice. Through unity, dignity, and mutual respect, we reaffirm our successful and valiant defense of our country’s values. May we never falter in our resolve to have our nation always be the land of the free and the home of the brave. In today’s program and the words of our president,^[1] President Bill Clinton. “had they not been there yesterday, were they not with us today, our world would indeed be far different.”
	And thus as we conclude, we beseech thee Thy blessings on our Commander-in-Chief and the leaders of this great land. May we together stand in unity to build a foundation for that bridge unto the 21st century one nation, under God with liberty and justice for all. Amen.

This prayer for Jewish War Veterans was offered by Rabbi Chaplain Simeon Kobrinetz on Veterans Day 1996 during the Veterans’ Day Memorial Service presided by President Bill Clinton at Arlington National Cemetery. Many thanks to Molly Frisinger for helping me with a difficult line in this transcription from the recording made available via C-SPAN.

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	President Bill Clinton.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“Veterans Day Prayer for Jewish War Veterans, by Rabbi Simeon Kobrinetz, Chaplain, USAF (Ret.)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Simeon Kobrinetz

Rabbi Chaplain Simeon Kobrinetz (1928-2011), born in Brooklyn, New York, was the first rabbi to attain general officer rank in the United States military. He graduated from Columbia University, studied at Yeshiva University, and earned a Ph.D. from the Jewish Technological Seminary. In 1970, after serving as Hillel Director at the University of Florida and the University of Miami, he served as national chaplain of the Department of Veterans' Affairs, including rising to president from 1976-1978. At the time of his death, He was also president of the Jewish War Veterans. Rabbi Kobrinetz led the campaign to establish Chaplain's Hill as a memorial to fallen Jewish chaplains.

Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America

The Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America (also referred to as the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., the Jewish War Veterans, or JWV) is an American Jewish veterans' organization created in 1896 by American Civil War veterans to raise awareness of contributions made by Jewish service members. (JWV holds a Congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code.) The organization has an estimated 15,000 members, ranging from World War Ⅱ to current conflicts and active duty personnel. It is the oldest active national veterans' service organization in America.

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.)

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Jewish War Veterans prayer on Veterans Day Memorial Service at Arlington National Cemetery (Simeon Kobrinetz 1996)

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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