Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Ely E. Pilchik on 12 May 1981

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Ely Emanuel Pilchik and United States Congressional Record

Shared on:

6 May 2024 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies, United States of America

Tags:

97th Congress, 20th century C.E., תחינות teḥinot, 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains

Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Ely E. Pilchik, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Short Hills, New Jersey
Sponsor: Rep. Joseph Minish (D-NJ)
Date of Prayer: 12 May 1981

Mr. MINISH. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to present our guest chaplain, Dr. Ely Emanuel Pilchik, now retiring after 34 years as rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, NJ. This historic congregation, founded in Newark in 1848, has been led by a man of impressive character and achievements.
Rabbi Pilchik came to this country from his native Russia in 1920. He earned his A.B. at the University of Cincinnati, his M.A. in Hebrew literature and his doctor of divinity degree from the Hebrew Union College. He has advanced education by his work as professor of Jewish thought at Upsala College, as president of the Jewish Book Council of America, as father of the Hillel Foundation at the University of Maryland, and as a prolific author.
Ordained in 1939, Rabbi Pilchik served congregations in Maryland and Oklahoma prior to his long and happy tenure at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun. He is immediate past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
This distinguished clergyman, scholar, and teacher served his country as a chaplain in the Naval Reserve during World War II. He served 10 years on the New Jersey State Scholarship Commission before becoming one of the first lay representatives on the Ethics Committee of the Essex County Bar Association, at the request of former New Jersey Chief Justice Hughes.
I am happy to count Rabbi Ely Pilchik as a loyal and esteemed friend. On this occasion of his retirement from his faithful service to Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, let me extend to him congratulations and warm good wishes. Allow me also to thank Rabbi Pilchik for his inspiring words here today. May God continue to bless him and the congregation he has served so well.

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Creator of the universe, Father of humankind, Author of freedom: We thank Thee for this good sweet land, for this vigorous, promising Nation, for this dream of human dignity all but fulfilled.
	Humbly we pray Thee, bless us, Thy people’s servants, with will and way to reason together.
	Invest our words with meaning, our convictions with balance, our decisions with beneficence.
	Breathe Thy spirit into our counsels, O God, that from this House shall radiate a great light illuminating the lives of men and women the world over, implementing the nobility of our American dream. Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the fifth month of the first session of the 97th US Congress in the House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 127, part 7 (12 May 1981), page 9266.

Source(s)

Congressional Record, vol. 127, part 7 (12 May 1981), p. 9266

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Ely E. Pilchik on 12 May 1981” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

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.)

Ely Emanuel Pilchik

Rabbi Ely Emanuel Pilchik (1913-2003) was an American Jewish Reform rabbi, Born in Baranowiz, Poland, he emigrated in 1920 to the United States. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati in 1935, he was ordained by HUC in 1939 and soon joined the faculty of the University of Maryland while serving as assistant rabbi at Har Sinai Temple in Baltimore until 1942. World War II interrupted his appointment as rabbi for Temple Israel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when he became a rabbi chaplain for the US Navy. After the war, he became rabbi of temple B'nai Jeshurun on Newark, New Jersey until 1981. Through the 1950s, he served on the Essex County Synagogue Council and the NJ Board of Rabbis, the Association of Reform Rabbis of New York, the executive board of CCAR, and as president of the Jewish Book Council of America. He served on the Board of Governors of HUC-JIR, and from 1977-1979, as president of CCAR. A scholar, he authored a number of books including Hillel (1951), Maimonides' Creed (1952), and Duties of the Heart (1953).

United States Congressional Record

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Printing Office and issued when Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks. At the end of a session of Congress, the daily editions are compiled in bound volumes constituting the permanent edition. Statutory authorization for the Congressional Record is found in Chapter 9 of Title 44 of the United States Code. (wikipedia)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=55780

Associated Image:

Flag of the United States House of Representatives

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category lists and in shared links on social media.)

This post, editable: XML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Ely Emanuel Pilchik and United States Congressional Record.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=55780>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Note: The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

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