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[Prayer] on the Disaster of the USS Akron, by Rabbi Norman M. Goldburg (5 April 1933)

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Our Father in heaven,
to Thee we come when sorrow overwhelms us,
when grief leaves us dejected and disconsolate.
To Thee, we turn, praying
that Thou wilt take us out of the valley of despair
that Thou wilt send consolation to our sorrowing hearts.
Heavenly Father,
a great disaster has befallen our nation.
Our majestic Queen of the Skies, the Akron,[1] The USS Akron (ZRS-4), an airship operated by the US Navy between 1931 and 1933. 
built by the most skillful of workers,
manned by the ablest officers and men,
viewed with pride by every loyal American—
has plunged to a watery grave.
That thing of beauty, of engineering skill—
marvel of modern science—
attesting to man’s every growing power
over the forces of nature—
is now but a memory—
a mass of twisted wreckage
at the bottom of the sea.
And most of the brave and gallant men
who guided her through the skies—
they, too, have gone to their eternal rest.
Father and King—
we thank Thee
for the lives of the rescued ones,
even as we mention,
in submission to Thy Divine will,
the names of those who have perished.
Send Thy consolation
to the fathers and mothers,
the wives and children of those
Thou hast gathered to Thy bosom.
Grant that these sacrifices
shall not have been in vain—
that from this tragic disaster
we may learn either to construct more safely,
or to refrain from building these great
and seemingly ill-fated monsters
of the sky.
Give us humility, O God,
and may we ever view human life
as precious beyond all else,
beyond pride in competition—
beyond all the material manifestations
of man’s handiwork.

“On the Disaster of the Akron” by Rabbi Norman Michael Goldburg, was offered before the California state legislature on 5 April 1933, and published in California Legislature 50th Session 1933: Prayers Offered at the Daily Sessions of the Assembly, pp. 61-63.

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Notes

Notes
1The USS Akron (ZRS-4), an airship operated by the US Navy between 1931 and 1933.

 

 

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