“[Prayer] for those at home,” a variation of a prayer by Rev. Howard A. Bridgman (1860-1929), is found adapted (without Christian god-language) by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron in his World War Ⅰ era prayerbook, Side Arms: Readings, Prayers and Meditations for Soldiers and Sailors (1918), on page 25. The original version of the prayer was first published in The Service Song Book (Young Men’s Christian Associations 1917), pp. 86 in the abridged edition.

Source(s)

“For Those At Home, a prayer for the home front during war by Rev. Howard A. Bridgman adapted by Rabbi Morris Lazaron (1918)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft 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.)

Morris Samuel Lazaron

Morris Samuel Lazaron (1888–1979), was a Reform Jewish rabbi in the United States. Born in Savannah, Georgia, he was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1914. He served as rabbi in Wheeling, West Virginia, for a year and in 1915 was appointed rabbi of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, the large and distinguished Reform synagogue in Baltimore where he served for 31 years as rabbi and rabbi emeritus. During World War I, he wrote Side Arms: Readings and Meditations for Soldiers and Sailors (1918). As rabbi he initiated youth-oriented programming, introduced innovative rituals, and was an early supporter of the interfaith movement, working with the National Conference of Catholics and Jews and traveling throughout the United States with a priest and a minister to represent the three faiths of America. Lazaron's retirement from this office in 1949 was linked to his active identification with the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism, of which he was a founder and vice president. This position was not problematic with his congregation until after the Holocaust, and especially after the establishment of the State of Israel. This led to the severing of his relationship with Baltimore Hebrew, including his resignation as rabbi emeritus. He was also a member of the National Council of the American Friends of the Middle East. He wrote several works, including Ask the Rabbi (1928); The Consolidation of Our Father (1928); Homeland or State: The Real Issue (1940); In the Shadow of Catastrophe (1956); Is This the Way? (1942); and Olive Trees in a Storm (1955).

Howard Allen Bridgman

Reverend Dr. Howard Allen Bridgman (1860-1929) was both a Congregationalist figure and educator. He studied at Amherst College, Hartford Theological Seminary, and Yale Theological Seminary. Bridgman was officially ordained in 1890. During this time, from 1883-1884, he was the principal of Massachusetts' Granby High School. In 1908, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity from Oberlin College. In 1889, Bridgman took the job of managing editor of the Christian magazine, "The Congregationalist" and remained in the position until 1911 when he took over as the publication's editor-in-chief. He kept this tenure until 1921, at which point he accepted the role of headmaster at the Lawrence Academy. In 1925, left this position and founded his own school, Bridgman School, which he also served as the headmaster of. Bridgman authored three books in his lifetime, "Steps Christward," "Real Religion," and "New England in the Life of the World." He served on a number of missionary councils abroad and was in attendance of the 1914 peace conference in Switzerland. Bridgman was also a director at the South End Social Settlement.

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War War I victory gardeners, Washington, D.C. or vicinity. (1918) Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative

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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

Works of related interest:

 

For the Day’s Round in Camp, a prayer for soldiers by Rev. Howard A. Bridgman adapted by Rabbi Morris Lazaron (1918)

Against Impurity, a prayer by Rev. Walter Rauschenbusch adapted by Rabbi Morris Lazaron (1918)

For All Mothers, a prayer by Rev. Walter Rauschenbusch adapted by Rabbi Morris Lazaron (1918)

📖 Side Arms: Readings, Prayers and Meditations for Soldiers and Sailors, by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron (1918)

Prayer for Our Country, a lament on the necessity of war by Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick (1917)

[Prayer During] the Epidemic of 1918, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach

Prayer for the United States during the Cold War, by Julius Klein (Jewish War Veterans of the USA, 1951)

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