This prayer of Rabbi Isidor Kalisch was offered on 15 January 1873 before the Tennessee State Senate, and published in the Republican Banner (16 January 1863), page 4. In the 1870s, the inclusion of rabbinic guest chaplains was still fairly novel, and in some states, controversial. In January 1873, Jews in Nashville organized against a resolution in the state Senate that might have restricted officiating chaplains to Christians only. Days before Rabbi Kalisch’s prayer was offered, a letter they submitted to the Tennessee State Senate was published in a local newspaper (find “The Hebrews and the Tennessee Legislature” in Courier-Journal, 14 January 1873, p. 3):

The Union and American publishes an open letter by the citizens of Nashville to the Tennessee Senate, as follows:

We the undersigned, citizens of Nashville, Tennessee, took always pride in the idea of belonging to the great nation which is at the head of the civilized world.

We have therefore been and are still ready to sacrifice at all times, if necessary, our life blood and all our treasures to promote the well being of our blessed Union, as well as that of our own State. Allow us now to put to you the humble question, by what right principle or authority did you exclude the Jewish ministers from being invited to open your sessions with prayer? Can, you show any precedence that the Jewish ministers have been excluded from opening with prayer the National Congress, assembled in Washington, D.C., or that of any State in the Union, where Jews reside and have organized congregations and are guided by authorized rabbis? On the contrary the history of the United States confirms the right of the Jewish minister to officiate as the chaplain of the Senate.

What is your reason that you, as the representatives of the whole people of the State of Tennessee, deprive us, who are members at the body politic as yourselves, of our civil and religious rights?

We should think that the Almighty, All-wise, All-kind, and Municipal God, who is the cause of all causes, who is worshiped by the Jews, is also worshiped by our Christian citizens, and that God is the father of all whom He has gifted with an intelligent soul, and hears the prayers of all without any difference of denominations or sect. We hope and wish that you will adopt the suggestion of Hon. Mr. McKenna to strike out of the resolution the word ‘Christian’ so that the Jews may not be excluded.

At the same time we inform your honorable body that we have here an organized Jewish congregation, where officiates an authorized minister, who is second to none of any other denomination.”

–Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Prayer of Isidor Kalisch before the Tennessee Senate 15 Jan 1873 (Republican Banner, 16 Jan 1873), p. 4

“Opening prayer before the Tennessee State Senate by Rabbi Isidor Kalisch on 15 January 1873” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Isidor Kalisch

Isidor Kalisch (15 November 1816 – 11 May 1886), born in Krotoschin, Prussia, was a prominent Reform movement rabbi and writer in the United States. He was educated at Berlin, Breslau (Wrocław) and Prague. While pursuing his studies in theology and philosophy, he contributed to German periodicals. In 1842 he wrote a patriotic poem, entitled "Schlacht-Gesang der Deutschen" (Battle song of the Germans) which was set to music and became one of the popular songs of the day. In 1843, he preached the first German sermon ever delivered in his native town. During the Revolutions of 1848, he first came to London, and in 1849 to the United States. In 1850, was came the Tifereth Israel congregation in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1855, the first conference of rabbis was held in Cleveland, and a ritual and common prayer-book was agreed upon, entitled Minhag America, which he edited together with Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise and found use in many synagogues. In 1855, he was requested by Prof. Josiah W. Gibbs, of Yale University, to decipher a Phoenician inscription that had been found in Sidon, Asia. His rendering of it was read before the Syro-Egyptian Society of London, 13 November 1855. From 1856 to 1860, he took a pulpit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he united two factions and organized Die treue Schwestern (the true Sisters), a benevolent society of Jewish women. Afterward, he held pulpits in Indianapolis; Detroit; Leavenworth, Kansas; Newark, New Jersey; and Nashville, Tennessee where he erected a synagogue. He returned to Newark in 1875, and devoted himself to literary work and to lecturing, taking part in polemical discussions in behalf of the ultra-reform element in Judaism. He took issue with Isaac Leeser's English translation of the Ḥumash, and on the "Jewish Belief in a Personal Messiah." From 1853 until 1878 he edited the Guide, and contributed a great number of essays and discourses to German and English religious periodicals.

Aharon N. Varady (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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Tennessee State Seal (1879)

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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