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Sponsor: Rep. Angelo D. Roncallo (R-NY)
Date of Prayer: 20 June 1973
Mr. RONCALLO of New York, Mr. Speaker, I am proud that our opening prayer in the House of Representatives was delivered by Rabbi Nathan Kapner, the spiritual leader of the Hillel Hebrew Academy and Synagogue of Massapequa, my hometown. It is indeed an honor for all the residents of the Third Congressional District on Long Island to have Rabbi Kapner here. He is the first clergyman from my new district to deliver the House opening prayer and I am proud that he was invited to do so.
It is most appropriate that Rabbi Kapner is with us today for, this evening, in my district, Jew and non-Jew alike are to march to the Russian mission estate in Glen Cove to protest the plight of Soviet Jewry.
Rabbi Kapner has long been concerned with the well-being of his Jewish brethren. Among his many outstanding accomplishments is his work with many blind Jewish youth in our community. With the assistance of braille prayer books and texts, Rabbi Kapner has helped these young people to become educated and fulfilled members of the Jewish community so that they can take full part in the traditional services of the synagogue and be knowledgeable of their traditions and history.
On behalf of my constituents and colleagues, I thank Rabbi Kapner for being with us today.
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O Lord, be Thou with this assembly of legislators who have been selected to guide the destinies of our great Nation. Humbly we ask Thy blessings to grant them good health and strength so that these honored lawmakers be sparked with God’s divineness and inspired to translate into law the Biblical moral and ethical ideals laid down by our ancestors: The hatred of tyranny and the love of freedom— the very foundation of our democracy. | |
Permit us to be sensitive to our aged, to the handicapped, and to the destitute in our midst. | |
We pray that our Republic uphold the reverence for all humanity in every land and continue to build a society based on love and compassion and the dignity of man. Amen. |
This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the sixth month of the first session of the 93rd US House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 119, part 16 (20 June 1973), page 20513.
Source(s)
Congressional Record, vol. 119, part 16 (20 June 1973), p. 20513
“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Nathan Kapner on 20 June 1973” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.
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