[Prayer on the] Retirement of a Civic Servant (Mayor Charles Henry Martens), by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (1952)

Contributor(s):

Avraham Samuel Soltes and Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

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26 January 2020 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah

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20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, civic prayers, retirement

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	O God of our Fathers, who bestowest of Thy wisdom upon the sons of men, and givest of Thy Sovereignty unto Thy children, we ask Thy blessing upon him whom the people have called forth year after year to speak for them in things of state.
	For more than three decades he has proven faithful to his sacred trust: When tempted by men whose god is gain, he has proven true to his city, to himself, and to Thee; When godless men have striven to make a mockery of righteousness, Thou hast touched his lips and given him courage to defend the right as he saw the right.
	Through all these years he has shared with the prophets and leaders of all time in the slings and arrows of outraged citizens, in the flames of derision and contumely which lap ever at the feet of those distinguished in posts of public trust.
	Yet didst Thou strengthen him, that the crucibles of torturous testing converted his iron will to a shaft of steely determination, and our city remained free of corruption and self-aggrandizement.
	As he doffs the mantle of leadership– his service rendered, his mission fulfilled, we ask for him continued health and strength through the years Thou hast allotted to him; that he may know the fullness of blessing envisioned by the Psalmist: “The righteous shall blossom like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon… They shall be sturdy in old age, flourishing and verdant; to declare that the Lord is upright, my Rock, in whom there is no unrighteousness.”^[1] Psalms 92:13-16. Amen.

Rabbi Abraham Soltes’s “[Prayer on the] Retirement of a Civic Servant” can be found in his collection of prayers, תפלה Invocation: A Sheaf Of Prayers (Bloch 1959). Their he writes that the prayer was delivered November 8, 1952, “on the retirement of Mayor [Charles Henry] Martens [(1883-1955)] of East Orange after 32 years as the city’s chief executive.”

Source(s)

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Psalms 92:13-16.

. Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication . 1.0 . Universal .

“[Prayer on the] Retirement of a Civic Servant (Mayor Charles Henry Martens), by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (1952)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.

Avraham Samuel Soltes

Rabbi Avraham Soltes (1917-1983) was a Reform Jewish rabbi, the Jewish chaplain at the United States Military Academy in West Point, an author and a leading figure in Jewish cultural affairs. He was born in New York City. He graduated from the City College of New York in 1937 and received a master's degree from Columbia University in 1938. After being ordained in 1942 by the Jewish Institute of Religion (now HUC-JIR), he served as chaplain at Cornell and McGill Universities and then was assistant rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan from 1946 to 1949. He subsequently served as rabbi at Temple Sharey Tefilo in East Orange and Temple Emanuel in Great Neck. He began his service at West Point as a voluntary chaplain in 1963 and was made a permanent member of the staff in 1981. His interests also took him into commerce, and from 1969 to 1974, he was vice president for community affairs of the Glen Alden Corporation, which in 1972 was merged into the Rapid America Corporation. From 1974 to 1977, he was assistant to the president of Tel Aviv University. He was credited with a key role in the establishment of the New York medical division at the university. In 1981, Rabbi Soltes received the Jabotinsky Award from Prime Minister Menachim Begin for his service to Israel. From 1977 until his death Rabbi Soltes had been the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Chavairuth of Bergen County, in Tenafly, N.J. He participated in many cultural and educational activities that interpreted Jewish art, music and literature. He was chairman of the National Jewish Music Council from 1963 to 1969 and a member of the board of the National Jewish Book Council from 1967 to 1972. Rabbi Soltes, a commentator on Jewish music for American listeners, was the host of a radio program, ''The Music of Israel,'' on WQXR from 1974-1983. Among his writings were Palestine in Poetry and Song of the Jewish Diaspora (Master's thesis HUC-JIR 1942) and Off The Willows: The Rebirth of Modern Jewish Music (1970).

Aharon N. Varady (editing/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.)

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Mayor Charles Henry Martens in The Syllabus (of East Orange High School) 1953

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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