A Prayer at the Ceremony of Breaking Ground for the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center, by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak (1924)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Jacob Bosniak

Shared on:

8 April 2023 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Homes & Community Centers

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Conservative Jewry, dedications and consecrations, synagogue consecration

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)
	O Lord, our God and God of our fathers, we have assembled here for the glory of Thy name. We are about to break ground for the erection of a building dedicated to Thy service. We are mindful of the words of the Psalmist, “Except the Lord build the House, they labour in vain that build it.” (Psalms 127:1) We invoke Thy blessing, O God, upon the work of our hand.
	We fully realize the great responsibilities we have taken upon ourselves, when we started this work. Grant us Divine assistance, to complete this building for the sake of Thy Torah, for the sake of Thy name. Hundreds of our people, who want to worship with us, cannot be admitted because of lack of accommodations. Many of our children who come begging for instruction in Thy sacred religion, have to be turned away because of lack of space. We want to perpetuate our sacred religion, in this our country of freedom and liberty. We want to preserve and transmit our Torah to future generations.
	We thank Thee, O God, for all Thou hast given us. For the good men and women who have thus far responded to our appeals, and made possible the beginning of this sacred work. Bless the Officers of our Congregation and auxiliary organizations, the Chairmen of the various committees, and their co-workers, who have given of their means, of their time and energy, unstintedly, and have continually worked for this sacred cause. Strengthen their hearts and their hands, and enable them to continue this work even with greater zeal, and courage, until it shall have been completed.
	May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto Thee, my God, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

“A Prayer at the Ceremony of Breaking Ground for the Building of a Synagogue” was written and delivered by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak on 19 October 1924, at the breaking of ground for the building of the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center. The prayer was first published in Rabbi Bosniak;s לקוטי תפלות Liḳutei Tefilot: Pulpit and Public Prayers (1927), pp. 101-102.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“A Prayer at the Ceremony of Breaking Ground for the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center, by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak (1924)” is shared by the living contributor(s) 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.)

Jacob Bosniak

Yitsḥaḳ Yaakov (Jacob) Bosniak (also Bosnyak, 1887–1963) was an American Conservative rabbi. Bosniak was born in Russia, immigrated to the U.S. in 1903, and completed his rabbinical studies at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Yeshivah, an Orthodox seminary, in 1907. In 1917, he was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he earned a Doctor of Hebrew Letters in 1933. In 1921, after having served Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, Texas, he became rabbi of the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center in Brooklyn, n.y., a congregation he was to serve for 28 years. He was president of the Brooklyn Board of Rabbis (1938–40), chairman of the *Rabbinical Assembly's Rabbinic Ethics Committee (1945–48) and a judge (dayyan) and member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Conciliation Board of America. Believing in the need for a uniform prayer book (siddur) with modern English translations, Bosniak published several prayer books that gained wide acceptance in Conservative synagogues. He edited Prayers of Israel (1925, 1937), Likutei Tefilot: Public and Pulpit Prayers (1927) and Anthology of Prayer (1958), prayer books that included English translations of Sabbath and Holiday prayers, English hymns, responsive readings, and instructions related to worship in English. In 1944, he published Interpreting Jewish Life: The Sermons and Addresses of Jacob Bosniak. Upon his retirement in 1949, Bosniak was elected rabbi emeritus and devoted his time to Jewish scholarship, publishing a critical edition of The Commentary of David Kimhi on the Fifth Book of Psalms (1954).

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=49915

Associated Image:

East Midwood Jewish Center building (credit: David Shankbone, license: CC BY-SA)

(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) and Jacob Bosniak.
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=49915>.
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