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Sponsor: Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-CA)
Date of Prayer: 13 November 1985
Mr. DANNEMEYER. Mr. Speaker, I have the very great honor today of representing Rabbi Haim Asa, of Fullerton, CA, who gave the invocation.
Rabbi Asa was born in Bulgaria and emigrated to Palestine in 1944, living there for 10 years. In 1954 he came to the United States to study agricultural economics at the University of Arizona. Soon thereafter, he decided to enter rabbinic studies and attended the Hebrew Union College Jewish Studies Institute.
Rabbi Asa served for 3 years as director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism for South America in Argentina. He is a past president of the Jewish Federal Council and a past president of the Fullerton Ministerial Association.
Rabbi Asa and his wife have four children. They have lived in Fullerton since 1963, where he serves at Temple Beth Tikvah.
My wife and I, with Denny Smith and his lovely wife, Kathleen, had the distinct pleasure of traveling to Israel earlier this year with Rabbi Asa, where he offered keen insight and observation on that historical land.
I am indeed very pleased to present Rabbi Haim Asa to the House today.
Mr. DENNY SMITH. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. DANNEMEYER. I yield to the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Denny Smith).
Mr. DENNY SMITH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
It is my distinct pleasure to have Rabbi Asa here today. The gentleman from California [Mr. DANNEMEYER] and his wife and my wife toured Israel with him last April, and we had a tremendous time with a tremendous individual, and it is a real pleasure to have him here in the House today as the visiting chaplain.
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Our God, the Lord of all mankind: It is our prayer that Your blessings of wisdom and courage come upon this assembly, upon our Government and our Nation. | |
The eyes of all of Your children are focused upon the forthcoming summit.[1] This was the Geneva Summit of 1985, a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19 and 20, 1985, between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race. Our respective religions teach that a summit is a place on top of a mountain. Your presence, O Lord, has often been revealed from the summit mountaintops. | |
Be with our President and his advisers at the summit, just as you were with Abraham our patriarch at Mount Moriah, with Moses at Mount Sinai, with Joshua at Mount Nebo, and with Jesus at the Calvary summit of Golgotha. | |
We pray that all who come to the summit would work toward shalom, for the survival of our planet, hopefully without sacrificing our freedom. | |
Bless this House and its Members, our President and his advisers with the blessing bestowed upon our Biblical ancestors: “Be strong and of a good courage” (Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:6-9) and let me say amen. |
This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the eleventh month of the first session of the 99th US House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 131 part 23 (13 November 1985), page 31557.
Source(s)
Congressional Record, vol. 131, part 23 (13 November 1985), p. 31557
Notes
| 1 | This was the Geneva Summit of 1985, a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. It was held on November 19 and 20, 1985, between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met for the first time to hold talks on international diplomatic relations and the arms race. |
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“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Haim Asa on 13 November 1985” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.
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