Contributed by: Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR], Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
“Land of Hope and Promise” was published in Gates of Prayer: The New Union Prayerbook (CCAR 1975), pp. 240-241. In 1984, it was published as the “Prayer for Israel” in the Prayerbook for Jewish Personnel in the Armed Forces of the United States (Jewish Welfare Board 1984), p. 436. The work appears to have been adapted from a much earlier paraliturgical hashkivenu prayer offered in the Evening Service for the Sabbath from the Union Prayer Book Newly Revised (CCAR 1924) to be said by the Reader between the Shema and the Amidah in a version (№5) of the Friday night service, pp. 68-69.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“On Entering a Child in Religious School” is the thirteenth prayer in the “Personal Prayers for Special Occassions” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), pp. 55-56.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“[Prayer for a] Silver or Golden Wedding Anniversary” is found in the “Family Worship” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), on page 33.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“[Prayer for a] Birthday Celebration” is found in the “Family Worship” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), page 31.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“A Prayer of Re-dedication” (also simply called “Rededication”) is the thirty-fifth prayer in the “Meditations” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 199. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR’s 1923 collection of teḥinot). A close read of the prayer suggests to me that this prayer was written in the shadow of World War Ⅱ and the Holocaust, giving voice to concerns over Jewish continuity in the midst of post–World War II economic expansion and largess in the United States.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“Lead Us, Lord” (also called, “God’s Guidance”) is the thirty-seventh prayer in the “Meditations” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 201. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR’s 1923 collection of teḥinot).
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“Repentance” is the thirty-sixth prayer in the “Meditations” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 200. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR’s 1923 collection of teḥinot).
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“Prayer After Passing Through Danger” is the second prayer in the “Personal Prayers for Special Occasions” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 42.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“[Prayer for] Thanksgiving Day” is found in the “Family Worship” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), pp. 29-30.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“On Taking a Journey” is the first prayer in the “Personal Prayers for Special Occasions” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 41.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“Beginning a New Enterprise” is the third prayer in the “Personal Prayers for Special Occassions” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), pp. 43-44.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“Family Ceremony for the Consecration of a New Home” is the first ritual ceremony found in the “Family Worship” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), pp. 7-11.
Contributed by: Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR], Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation)
The Union Home Prayer Book (1951) is an anthology of prayers for family and personal use following in the tradition of the Seder Teḥinot and many earlier anthologies of private (non-communal) prayer practice. In the largest section, “Meditations,” the collection re-published 36 of the prayers from CCAR’s ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (1923), omitting 15. To these, three new prayers were added, along with some new sections: “Family Worship,” “Personal Prayers for Special Occassions,” “Prayers for Night and Morning,” and “Prayers in Time of Sickness and Death.”
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
This “Opening Prayer at a Service for Observance of a Congregational Anniversary” is included in CCAR’s Rabbi’s Manual (1928), pp. 130-132.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
This “Prayer at [the] Dedication of a Community Center” is included in CCAR’s Rabbi’s Manual (1928), p. 117.
Contributed by: Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
A manual for Reform movement rabbis compiled by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1928, containing ceremonial prayers for life cycle events in the synagogue, cemetery, and other contexts.
Contributed by: Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR], Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is an untitled prayer offered in the Evening Service for the Sabbath from the Union Prayer Book Newly Revised (CCAR 1924), pp. 68-69, as a reading between the Shema and the Amidah. As a prayer for protection it fits as a paraliturgical haskivenu, and in New York City, it makes sense in the context of the terrifying news of mass-murder, rape, and genocide being reported from Ukraine at the time. (Find Nokhem Shtif’s “פּאָגראָמען אין אוקראַיִנע : די צײַט פֿון דער פֿרײַװיליקער אַרמײ (The Pogroms in Ukraine: the Period of the Volunteer Army)” (1923) offered in Yiddish and in English translation at In Geveb.) The Ukrainian context of this prayer is further underscored in that the prayer is not found in the 1918 revised Union Prayer Book, but in the later 1924 edition. It may have been unique to Congregation Emanu-El in New York City, who compiled this version of the Union Prayer Book for radio listeners joining their service.
Contributed by: Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR], Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This prayer by an unknown author is first found in Evening Service for the Sabbath from the Union Prayer Book (Newly Revised) (1924), p. 45. (It also appears on the same page of the 1940 edition of the “newly revised” UPB.) The prayer is included as a third variation of a Reform synagogue’s Shabbat evening service, in the Amidah before the silent meditation. Rabbi Michael Satz of Temple B’nai Or (Morristown, New Jersey) affectionately refers to it as the “Coal Miner’s Prayer.”
Contributed by: Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
Evening Service for the Sabbath from the Union Prayer Book, Newly Revised (CCAR 1924), a Reform movement prayerbook disseminated by Congregation Emanu-El in New York City in 1924, was the first publication of the “Newly Revised” edition of the Union Prayerbook, published as a complete prayerbook in 1940.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]
“The Sabbath” is the fifth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 22-25. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution to any of the prayers in this volume. The author was likely one of the members of the Committee on Book of Meditations and Prayers: Solomon B. Freehof, Israel Bettan, Abraham Cronbach, Morris S. Lazaron, and Abram Simon.

