שׁוֹבֵר אוֹיְבִים | Prayer for Our Enemies, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1932)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Abraham Cronbach

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11 December 2025 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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English vernacular prayer, interwar period, Jewish pacifism, paraliturgical shover oyvim, שובר אויבים shover oyvim

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Grant, Lord, that we might overcome our enemies by transforming them into friends. Make them and make us conscious of those deep inward reaches whereby every heart is rooted in the world’s deep common life.
	Cause us to cease looking into directions that oppose. Cause us, O thou our Utmost Good, to look into the one direction of a united look unto Thee. Amen.

This prayer, entitled “[Prayer for] Our Enemies,” was published in The Jewish Peace Book for Home and School (1932) under “Section Ⅲ: Peace Devotions for Jewish Use — Prayers for Peace” on pages 100-101. This prayer seems to me to be inspired by (or a reformulation of) the traditional twelfth blessing of the weekday Amidah, שׁוֹבֵר אוֹיְבִים וּמַכְנִיעַ זֵדִים shovér oyvim u-makhniya zedim (“who breaks enemies and overpowers evil ones”) a/k/a la-malshinim or al haminim.

Source(s)

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.)

Abraham Cronbach

Abraham Cronbach (February 15, 1882 – April 2, 1965) was a Reform movement rabbi in the United States, a teacher, and a leader and activist for Jewish pacifism. He served as a rabbi for congregations in Indiana, Ohio, and New York. Cronbach was one of the founders of the Peace Heroes Memorial Society and a co-founder of the Jewish Peace Fellowship.

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Placard reads, “Germans, defend yourselves, do not buy from Jews”, at the Jewish Tietz store. On April 1, 1933, the boycott which was announced by the Nazi party began.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

שׁוֹבֵר אוֹיְבִים | Prayer for Our Enemies, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1932)

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