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Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan)

This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany (including Austria and the Sudentenland). Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party’s Sturmabteilung (SA) paramilitary and Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938 (15-16 Marḥeshvan). Historians view Kristallnacht as a prelude to the Final Solution and the murder of six million Jews, among many others, during the Holocaust.

☞ If you have composed a prayer or prayer-poem for Kristallnacht, please share it here.

Resources filtered by TAG: “20th century C.E.” (clear filter)

Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

[Prayer on] the German Crisis, by Rabbi Norman M. Goldburg (3 April 1933)

“The German Crisis” by Rabbi Norman Michael Goldburg, was offered before the California state legislature on 3 April 1933, and published in California Legislature 50th Session 1933: Prayers Offered at the Daily Sessions of the Assembly, pp. 59-60. . . .

Tags: 1933 in Germany, 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., California State Legislature, English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, Reichstag Fire Decree, United States

Contributor(s): Norman Michael Goldburg and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for all Jewish Communities in Germany for the Eve of the Day of Atonement, by Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck (10 October 1935)

This is the prayer which Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck had disseminated to Jewish communities throughout Germany to recite on Yom Kippur, 10 October 1935. The German text here is as found in the archival notes of Helmut Grünewald, Ein Judenjunge durfte kein Deutscher sein (Bristol, 1998), pp. 20-21 in the collection of the Leo Baeck Institute. The English translation is as published by Dr. Michael Meyer in Rabbi Leo Baeck: Living a Religious Imperative in Troubled Times (2020), pp. 106-107. . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Yom Kippur

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., עמידה amidah, German Jewry, German vernacular prayer, standing meditation, Third Reich, Yom Kippur

Contributor(s): Leo Baeck and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה לעזרת היהודים תושבי גרמניה | Prayer for German Jewry under Nazi oppression before and after Kristallnacht (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1938)

An untitled prayer on behalf of German Jewry under Nazi oppression disseminated in Bombay, likely after Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938). . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Shiv'ah Asar b'Tamuz, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., anti-fascist, British Empire, German Jewry, Jews of India, the Holocaust, Third Reich, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s): Joseph Herman Hertz, Office of the Chief Rabbi of the UHC of the UK & the Commonwealth and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

מי שברך לשבויים | Mi sheBerakh for the Captives, after Kristallnacht (Hamburg, November 1938)

This is a prayer for captives, written in November 1938 in Hamburg, following Kristallnacht (my translation following the Hebrew). “May each and every one of them return to their family…who are worrying about them.” . . .

Categories: Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., captives, מי שברך mi sheberakh, Needing Vocalization

Contributor(s): Elie Kaunfer and Unknown Author(s)

שִׁיר הַגְאוּלָה (החיינו אל) | Shir ha-Ge’ulah (Song of Redemption), by an anonymous author (1940)

This is a vocalized transcription and translation of the World War Ⅱ era song, “Shir haGe’ulah (Song of Redemption)” from the source images shared in A Tribute to Rabbi Mordechai Meir Hakohen Bryski v”g Bryski (Rabbi Mordechai A. Katz, 2017), pp. 19-20. The song is also known by its incipit, “Heḥayyeinu El.” . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, Se'udah haShlishit

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, חבּ״ד ḤaBaD Lubavitch, משיח Moshiaḥ, the Holocaust, World War Ⅱ, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים | El Malé Raḥamim for Victims of the Shoah (the Netherlands, ca. late 1940s)

This is an undated El Malé Raḥamim prayer for the victims of the Shoah translated into Dutch for a Yom Kippur ne’ilah service, likely sometime soon after the Holocaust had ended. To this I have added an English translation for those not fluent in Dutch or Hebrew. We are grateful to Shufra Judaica (Ellie Fisher and David Selis) for sharing a digital copy of this prayer. . . .

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Dutch Jewry, אל מלא רחמים El Malé Raḥamim, נעילה‎ neilah, Netherlandish Jewry, the Holocaust, השואה the Shoah

Contributor(s): Unknown Translator(s), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

שְׁפוֹךְ אֲהָבָתֵךְ | Shfokh Ahavatekh (Pour Out Your Love), by Rabbi Ḥayyim Bloch (1948)

A paraliturgical adaptation of the prayer/curse, “Shfokh Ḥamatekha,” this prayer, likely written during, or just after the Holocaust, recognizes those nations and righteous gentiles who fought and risked their lives to aid and rescue European Jewry. . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Barekh, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., paraliturgical shfokh hamatekha, post-Holocaust liturgical adaptations, righteous gentiles, שפוך חמתך shfokh ḥamatekha, the Holocaust, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s): Mosheh Ḥayyim ben Avraham Abba Bloch and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

קִינָה עַל חֻרְבָּן הָאַחֲרוֹן | Lamentation on the Holocaust, by Shimon Zuker (1980)

A ḳinnah composed by a concentration camp survivor. . . .

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Cantillated readings in English, קינות Ḳinōt, the Holocaust

Contributor(s): Gertrude Hirschler (translation), Simon Zuker, Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Len Fellman (translation)

על השואה ועל התפלתה | Prayer in the Shoah, an essay and a prayer by Rabbi Dr. David Weiss Halivni (2000)

A meditation on a unique prayer heard by Rabbi Dr. David Weiss Halivni at the Rosh Hashanah services at the Wolfsberg Labor Camp in 1944. . . .

Categories: Holocaust & Genocide Memorial Day Readings, 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Davvening, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., non-dual theology, the Holocaust

Contributor(s): Peter W. Ochs (translation), David Weiss Halivni and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=5225

Associated Image:

"Interior view of the destroyed Fasanenstrasse Synagogue, Berlin, burned on Kristallnacht; November Pogroms" (from the Collection of the Center for Jewish History, CC0)

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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

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