A Prayer at the Ceremony of the Corner Stone Laying for the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center, by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak (1925)

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:

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

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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 lay the Corner Stone of the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center, a house which will be dedicated to Thy service, and we invoke Thy blessing, O God, upon the work of our hands.
	We pray that this House, when it is completed, should be a place, where all elements of our community, young and old, rich or poor, should come together for Thy service; a place where Heaven and earth shall meet, where the spiritual shall unite with the material, and thus enrich our lives, and enable us to be better men and women, better Jews and better citizens.
	We thank Thee, O God, for all Thou hast granted us, for the good men and women who have given of their means, and thus made possible the beginning of this work. Bless the hands of those who will lay the corner stones of Thy House. Bring joy and happiness to all those who helped us so far.
	Bless the officers of our Congregation, the officers of our auxiliary organizations, the chairmen of the various committees and their coworkers. They have all given of their means, of their time and energy, and continually worked for the glory of Thy name. Give them health and strength. Strengthen their hearts and their hands, and enable them to continue this work even with greater zeal and courage. Amen.

“A Prayer at the Ceremony of the Corner Stone Laying of a Synagogue” was written and delivered by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak on 19 April 1925, at the laying of the cornerstone 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. 103-104.

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“A Prayer at the Ceremony of the Corner Stone Laying for the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center, by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak (1925)” 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).

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

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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